Tales of Chaos
by The Twisted Tale Twins
Summary: When Eliza's Gamecube explodes, she and Serena are stuck dealing with an out of this world problem in the form of two Symphonia characters come to life, now these girls have a month to get them back into the game before their moms come home from vacation!
1. Here We Go Again

Tales of Chaos I: Chaotic Beginnings

Disclaimer: If we really owned ToS and ToS 2, would we be writing a fan fiction?

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Prologue: Here we go Again

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'_Life is not certain, so be positive and if that doesn't work; think of a big cookie!'_

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"Ok! Now, move her to the left! No, not that left! The other left!" The voice of seventeen-year-old Eliza Snow cut through the tense atmosphere.

"Oops! Sorry!" Sixteen year-old Serena Attwater cried out in response to her friend. Her fingers hastily moved the joystick of the Gamecube controller in the direction of Eliza's orders.

"Okay! Now have Raine cast Photon!!"

"All right Eliza!" the girl pressed the combination of buttons that she thought was the proper one for activating the Photon spell . . . only to be thrown for a loop when the silver-headed half-elf on the TV screen started to instead chant the incantation for Resurrection rather than the one used for Photon. "Oh for the love of beets, Raine! She said Photon, not Resurrection!"

Eliza growled, "Oh for–! Serena you pressed the wrong button! **Again**!"

"Eep! Sorry!"

"Don't worry! I think I–almost–got it!"

Back on the TV screen that the girl's eyes were glued to, Lloyd himself struck down the final Baby Dragon with a powerful Fierce Demon Fang. And as the screen moved from an empty battle field to the one for victories, Eliza jumped to her feet from her place on Serena's bed and did her own little victory dance.

"Booya! Those Dragons just got served!"

Serena's attitude, however, was the opposite of her excited friend's. "Aww. . . . The poor dragons." she lamented as the happy tune of the battle music rang in her ears.

Eliza halted her victory dance and dropped her gaze back down to the girl, a confused expression written over her face at the comment. "Uh, Serena they were trying to kill the characters. It was either them or us, in a weird way."

"Huh? Oh . . . right. Sorry."

At hearing the word 'sorry' Eliza's face melted over into one of annoyance, "Don't start with the 'sorry' stuff again. It's not your fault!"

Serena flinched at the tone of Eliza's voice. "I'm sorry!" she squeaked out timidly.

"S-Serena–! Don't sta–! Okay, you know what? Just forget it, and let's just get back to playing the game before you start going on a sorry rant." Eliza breathed out a sigh at Serena's little issue. "Man. . . . And you wonder why I think you're just like Colette," the girl quietly muttered to herself.

She lowered herself back onto the bed and went to go press the green A button on her black controller to continue the game's story . . . only to find that it wouldn't work. The TV stubbornly remained on the battle result screen.

"What the. . . ? Come on you silly little button. . . . Why won't you work already?!" she screamed, continuing to pummel the A button with her thumb as rapidly and as hard as she could out of frustration.

"Uh . . . um, E-Eliza I-I think that if you keep on hitting the controller like that, you'll break it. . . ." Serena spoke quietly, trying her best to calm her frustrated friend. "A-And maybe it isn't the controller? M-Maybe it's your Gamecube. Maybe?"

Eliza suddenly stopped the senseless button-abuse at Serena's suggestion. "Oh snap, I didn't think of that. I hope that isn't it," she said slightly crossed. All of a sudden, the TV screen attempted to move on with the game's story . . . But something was really, really wrong. A loud screech came from the device, the characters on the screen glitching like crazy.

"EEP!!" Serena yelped out, cringing over from shock while shoving her hands over her ears as fast as possible in a frantic attempt to block out the noise.

"Ack!! Loud!! Way too Loud!!!" Eliza's hands fumbled around desperately for the remote, and she shut off the TV promptly, ridding the room of the horrid noise. Both girls let out sighs of relief at the silence that followed. . . .

"Oh thank the beets of the world. . . !" Serena let out, Eliza nodded in agreement with the girl.

Their reprieve was cut short, although the TV had been the culprit in causing the screeching noise, the Gamecube that sat innocently on a shelf below it was now making the strangest noises that either girl had ever heard a machine make.

"Geez, that thing sounds worse than that blender that we stuck gravel in," Eliza muttered.

Serena's head tilted to the side, "I think that it's the Gamecube and not the controller after all. . . ."

Eliza looked at her friend with one of those looks that just screams, "No! You think?!"

"What. . . ? Eliza, did I say something weird again?"

Eliza cleared her throat as she looked away from the girl. "No comment," she said stoically. "Anyway, I just hope that thing doesn't decide to explode on me. There shouldn't be anything wrong with it. After all, it _was_ working fine yesterday and the game disc is brand new, for Pete's sake!" the girl shouted.

Serena watched silently as her friend slowly and cautiously rose to her feet and made a movement toward the malfunctioning machine. "Eliza. . . ? What are you doing?"

Eliza turned and looked at the girl, "I'm going to turn that thing off before it explodes on us or something." While she said that, she was silently praying that she wouldn't suffer a game console-related burn or some other sort of injury.

Absentmindedly, Serena tugged on a dark brown strand of hair, "Maybe we shouldn't touch it Eliza."

"Yeah and then what should we do? It's either turn the thing off, or risk it exploding on us."

The seventeen-year-old stood in front of the machine and moved her hand toward the round, grey power button when something caught her eye. . . . Left in its slot unharmed was none other than the memory card that had the data from Eliza and Serena's gaming endeavors.

Eliza felt something overcome her common sense, something that she couldn't explain or understand. All she knew was that she _had_ to save the memory card. And instead of doing what a regular teenager would, which would naturally be to turn the machine off, her hand trailed downward to the small grey square. Almost completely, Eliza stopped moving and started to act as if she was underneath some sort of . . . spell or strange enchantment.

Although she had a grip on the memory card, she wasn't making any attempt to pull it out of its slot.

The strange grinding sound inside of the Gamecube grew louder, and Serena was well aware of this as she noticed Eliza's sudden lack of movement when she made contact with the malfunctioning machine. . . . She came to notice that her friend had not pressed the grey round button off, and instead had opted for the memory card under it. As the noise level deep inside the gaming console grew louder, Serena's eyes widened, though Eliza seemed blissfully unaware of the impending doom the horrid noise bespoke of.

As the noise grew worse, Serena grabbed a nearby Frog Shaped pillow to use as a shield of sorts to protect herself. Serena looked wide-eyed at the brunette girl who, with a dull expression, was still gripping the memory card.

Serena squeaked, "Eliza!!" and, forgetting her own safety, the girl threw the pillow she held to the ground as she tore up and toward Eliza. In her mind she thought that Eliza was being electrocuted, so she reached for her. As valiant as Serena's efforts may've seemed . . . the girl had some issues with her balance and in the middle of her almost heroic scene, the girl's foot slid on the slippery cover of a discarded 'Tales of Symphonia' information booklet, and she tumbled backwards. She panicked as she went down and clutched at Eliza's arm, accidently pulling the girl to the floor with her. Eliza snapped out of her trance-like state as soon as she felt gravity's effects on her rear.

But unseen by both girls as they went down, as Eliza had pulled out the memory card from its slot, strange blue and red sparks were let out as the little piece of plastic was suddenly disconnected from its home. . . .

Meanwhile, the machine in question finally lost its battle to the strange grinding noise in it and let off a mini explosion. And the simple as that, the machine the two girls had put so much time into was ruined.

Eliza groaned, not only had she fell to the ground without so much as a warning, but during the trip downward she had swung and twisted so that she hit the ground first, and now served as an object that broke the fall of Serena. It just so happened that the other girl was a few inches taller than she was, meaning that breaking her fall was rather . . . painful to say the very least.

Serena was unaware of who or what she had landed on, only knowing that something had broken her tumble backwards.

She pulled her head up off of her floor, wondering where Eliza had vanished to, unaware that her friend was under her and unable to breathe. "Eliza? Eliza where'd you go?" she said curiously.

The girl squeaked loudly when she heard a loud groan radiate from underneath her, "Ugh, Serena . . . could you please get off of me. . . ?" Eliza moaned.

Serena screamed, quickly pulled herself off of her friend and dropped down at her side.

"Eliza I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make you fall over too, or fall on you! T-Talk to me! Are you okay?!"

Eliza set a hand on her pounding head as she sat up, finding that a pillow with a smiling frog's face on it had broken her own fall slightly. She found that she was pretty much fine.

"Serena, I'm ok. But for the love of Pete that was totally weird I'm telling you, in the morning the Nintendo company is getting a very, very strong call from one **very **unhappy camper!!!" She let out a sigh, "Oh well, at least it wasn't the Wii. . . ."

Serena was of course concerned for her friend, but her orchid-colored eyes couldn't help but wander over to what was left of the Gamecube. . . . "Eep!" she suddenly cried out, almost falling over backwards yet again.

Eliza looked over to the girl in confusion, "Serena?"

"Um, uh Eliza? The Gamecube's on fire!!" she shouted.

Eliza glanced over to the black, flaming machine. "Oh crap! Serena go grab the sack of flour from under your sink!!! Hurry!!"

Some time after the Gamecube had been put out with flour. . . .

The whole lower half of Serena's TV stand was covered with white powder, and her whole room smelled of melted plastic and smoke.

"And I used to be a pyro? Geez, what was wrong with me?!" Eliza shouted. "Oh well, I guess that it was a good thing we made s'mores earlier, otherwise we wouldn't have taken the batteries out of the smoke detectors, and they would've gone off. Last thing we need is the landlord breathing down our necks. We already have enough trouble on our plates!"

She plopped down onto Serena's bed and stared at the ruined Gamecube which had once been hers. What had led up to this whole ordeal was nothing more than a typical day . . . which may not exactly be typical in the case of most people.

Only a few days ago both Eliza and Serena had gone out to buy a cheap game to play while both of their mothers were off on an extended vacation in Hawaii. Every game store they visited had resulted in the same incident, a Tales of Symphonia game case falling off of a high shelf and hitting either Eliza or Serena on top of the head, so finally after going to five different game stores with the same game falling and hitting them, they finally just bought the thing.

Though, only after Eliza screamed to the sky, "Geez! You want us to buy this thing so badly, we'll buy it! Just stop making it fall on our heads!"

Needless to say, the girls received some very odd stares after that. As far as they could figure though, if the same game fell on their heads at five different places then there had to be some weird reason for them to buy it. But . . . what they were not expecting, especially after being forced into buying it because inanimate objects had been stalking them, was that they would absolutely love that game. And this morning had been like the past few, Eliza coming over to Serena's with Tales of Symphonia and her Gamecube in tow. And the two playing the game until they were ready to fall asleep.

But now, that routine from the last three days was broken. Eliza's Gamecube had glitched with the game disc inside of it and it had made the machine blow up, the only working remnant being the small grey card that Eliza still had gripped in her hand. And the thing was; Eliza hadn't meant to the grab the card at all. Some strange feeling had overcome her and she'd grabbed instead of turning the gaming console off.

Serena took the chance to speak up, "Oh well, right? At least we put it out." She lowered her gaze to see what Eliza was fiddling with in her hand. "Hmm. . . ? Eliza you saved the memory card? Why'd you do that?"

Eliza gave an unsure smile as she held the device up, "Yeah I saved it. I don't know why, if I had just shut the Gamecube off instead we wouldn't have had an explosion on our hands." Her grip on the square tightened. "What was I thinking?" she murmured quietly.

"You got me," Serena shrugged.

Eliza sighed and let her hand drop, "Aw man . . . I was not expecting anything like this today. Hey, Serena? What time is it?"

Serena glanced over to the ticking cat clock that hung on her wall, "Um, it's almost midnight."

Eliza let out one more sigh and reluctantly stood up, pocketing the memory card. "I think it's time I headed back to my apartment. I'm tired after this whole mess."

Serena gave her friend an unsteady smile, "Yeah the excitement from the explosion is wearing off and I'm starting to get sleepy too. I'll walk you out, Eliza."

Eliza's amber eyes glanced over to Serena and the girl couldn't help but give a small smile. "Thanks."

Serena let Eliza walk ahead of her on their way out, and on the way to the front door Serena couldn't help but ask her friend a question, "Eliza, why do you think that the Gamecube exploded?"

"Ehh, heck as if I know. I'll figure it out in the morning." This time, it was Eliza's turn to shrug.

The metal door of Serena's apartment swung open as the two teenagers stepped out into the dimly lit hallway, Eliza pulled out a small key ring out of her back pocket, which had only two keys on it. The girl stepped over to the door that was right smack next to Serena's. Luckily for the two best friends, they lived right next to one another. After she unlocked her door and set her hand on the knob she looked back over to Serena who just gave her a big smile.

"Good morning, Sunshine!"

"And good night, Moonbeam!" Eliza laughed.

This was a tradition for the two: their way of saying good-nights and good-byes to one another.

Serena smiled even bigger at seeing Eliza let out a laugh. "I'll see you in the morning Serena."

"Okay, sleep well Eliza!" the girl said as she retreated into her apartment to prepare for bed.

Eliza followed suit into her own domicile, both girls locked their doors as soon as they were inside. Currently, both Serena and Eliza were living on their own, both of their mothers had taken a 'business trip' to Hawaii for the next month, but both girls knew that it was really a vacation, though they did have the option of going if they wanted to.

A sigh escaped from Eliza's lips as she walked back to her bedroom, shoving a hand into her pocket and pulling out the grey square that had been poking her side ever since she'd stuck it in there. She quietly set the only survivor of the earlier carnage on her dresser, which was set near the head of her bed. She grabbed hold of her Nintendo DS and set the internal alarm on it for 9:00 AM, since there was no doubt in her mind that Serena wouldn't be up then. She slid off of her black flip-flops and in her jeans and T-shirt she slipped until the covers of the mattresses that served as a bed for her.

A long breath escaped the girl's lips as she drifted off into a dreamless sleep . . . but what escaped the girl's knowledge as she slept, was that the memory card on her dresser letting out strange, yet harmless, red and blue sparks as it had before. . . .

In the Morning. . . .

Eliza let out a loud whine, as the DS began to beep loudly, interrupting her sleep. Without looking, her hand shot out from under the covers of her bed and went to strike the portable game console. But, instead of turning the DS off, the girl instead felt another person's hand in its place. She suddenly became wide awake. . . . Her eyes opened as wide as humanly possible when the hand she'd touched suddenly moved. . . .

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A/N: Well? How was it? Any good?

-End of the Prologue

_-Through the twists and turns, may our paths cross once more. . . ._


	2. Let the Flames Begin

Tales of Chaos I: Chaotic Beginnings

Disclaimer: We don't own ToS, or ToS 2, but that doesn't stop us from wanting to!

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Chapter One: Let the Flames Begin

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'_What a shame we all became such fragile, broken things,  
A memory remains, just a tiny spark,  
I give it all my oxygen,  
To let the flames begin,  
So let the flames begin. . . .' _-Paramore, RIOT!

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Serena's situation. . . .

Serena let out a loud long yawn as she stared up at the blank white ceiling of her room. She was still half-caught in the clutches of sleep, she squeaked and stretched out in an attempt to bring herself around fully. Minutes passed after she had stretched and the girl hadn't even attempted to move herself from her bed. She sighed and let her eyes roam over to the creepy ticking cat clock that hung on her wall. Before the girl had collapsed into bed, unlike Eliza she had changed into a pair of dark colored PJs that were covered in blue moons and stars.

'Nine in the morning. Why do I bother to even look I'm always awake at nine,' she thought to herself. Another sigh escaped the girl's lips. No matter what time she went to bed, she was always up at nine the next morning, which grew to be annoying as well as boring to the girl.

Her feet slipped to the floor along with her bundle of white sheets, but as her sleepy eyes drifted down, she considered whether picking them up was worth the effort. It wasn't, so she didn't. She stood to her full height, and stretched out her arms. She started to her wardrobe to pick out clothes for the day, when suddenly her foot caught on something. . . .

She lost her footing and balance, and made a very ungraceful lunge for the floor. She let out a yelp as she went down, sharp pain shot through her forehead as it suddenly made contact with the corner of a dresser. Which was very surprisingly sharp and blunt.

She pulled herself up, and to her feet, rubbing the already forming knot on her forehead as she wondered what she could have possibly tripped over. Before her mom had left, she had made Serena clean up her room, so there shouldn't have been anything on her floor, well, at the very least in front of her bed.

When she turned around she had to slap her hands over her mouth, the knot on her forehead forgotten as shock overtook her body. The object which she had tripped over was not a _what_ but a _who_. . . . Her eyes were locked on this person, but what was more shocking to poor Serena than finding a person lying on her bedroom floor was the fact that this stranger was familiar to her!

The man in question began to move, letting out a groan as he started to sit up. He had abnormally long red hair, so long that it was almost disturbing to see on a guy. As soon as Serena was able to see his face, she deduced that the man was in his early twenties.

The man's eyes fell on Serena after he had glanced around in confusion for a few moments without seeing her. Serena's stillness born of complete and total surprise had made him overlook her presence. He was clutching onto his right arm as if it were broken or something.

A combination of emotions was overlaying his face in a mix of shock and confusion. "How dare you try and harm my beautiful body!?" Less than a second later, a new expression appeared on his face that read, 'You don't like me?'

Serena's hands slipped from her mouth, a bewildered and disbelieving smile spreading along her lips. An almost maddening laugh came bubbling up from inside, "I-I have a concussion. . . Y-Yes that's it . . . after all he's not real, he's just a video game character! He's not real!"

Serena continued to mutter things to herself incoherently, as the man whom she thought was merely a figment of her imagination stared at her. A rather odd, giddy feeling washed over Serena all of sudden as she began to feel dizzy and light-headed. Her eyes rolled backward and their lids slid shut in almost a lazy fashion. But, lazy or not, it was beyond her control. Her mind was sending signals throughout her entire body to stay awake and to not lose consciousness. And it was doing it that for two main reasons.

One: if she wasn't hallucinating then there was a strange man in her bedroom. And two: she might've given herself a concussion. Passing out with one of those could result in her falling into a comatose state. . . . But, the girl lost the fight and issued a groan as her body swayed and she collapsed to the floor.

Eliza's situation. . . .

Eliza was lying frozen in place underneath her covers, her DS had ceased its beeping moments ago, but her hand was still over top of another person's, and the hand was **moving**. . . .

"Ow! You want a fight?! Fine, but you're going to regret it!" a woman's voice came from somewhere beyond the top of Eliza's bed, or what should have been the foot of her bed, Eliza had an odd habit of making the head of her bed be what should've been the foot of it.

Eliza felt the woman's hand suddenly whip out from under hers without a warning. She sat up as fast as she could, her body still being exhausted from not fully waking up from her sleeping, and she turned to face the woman who'd somehow intruded her room.

The stranger in question had plum-black hair that was pulled to the back of her head with a pink bow in a messy ponytail. Her shirt was something that you never normally see, being an open lavender-colored ninja/kimono top which had a pink ribbon tied around the waist and held off in a bow in her back, the ends of the ribbon falling down to her knees at least.

She had positioned herself into a battle stance, holding small red paper cards in-between her thumbs and first two fingers as if they were some sort of weapon. Her face held an expression of determination. . . .

And as far as Eliza was able to guess . . . this woman, who appeared a few years her elder, was some cosplayer gone nuts dressed as none other than Sheena Fujibayashi.

"Okay you wanna-be Sheena cosplayer, how in the heck did you get into my apartment?!" Eliza yelled as she threw herself out of bed, still clothed in the black T-shirt and jeans she'd been sporting the previous night. Her light brown hair had come out of the side ponytail that she kept in it on the right side of her head while she'd slept.

The woman looked at the teen's messy appearance and lowered her hands back to her sides, realizing that this disheveled girl was probably the least likely person to attack her. She also had a slightly shocked expression on her face, "H-How do you know my name. . . ?" she asked.

Eliza gritted her teeth, "Quit pretending you wanna-be!"

"Why do you keep calling me a wanna-be? I know who I am. And how would you know who I am when I've never met you before? Or even where I am for that fact?" the woman's head turned toward the only source of light in the room and stared out of the window to the almost empty parking lot below.

"How could you not know where you are, when you were the one who broke into _my_ apartment?!" Eliza retorted to the woman's strange question.

"I-I don't know!! I know that I didn't break into this place, wherever it is! All I know is I blacked out and woke up when _you_ smacked my hand!"

Eliza's fists clenched together tightly and her temper snapped, resulting in her growing even more angry, "I was aiming for my DS!!! After all, do you think that I was expecting to find your hand on _my_dresser where my DS was suppose to be?!" She paused for a moment as she planted her hands on her hips. "Stop pretending to be Sheena already, wanna-be!!! Your act is wearing on my last nerve!"

The argument between the two continued for some time. Eliza's patients wearing thinner and thinner, and Sheena becoming very upset at being called a 'wanna-be'.

Serena. . . .

A groan escaped from Serena's lips as she came to, a horrible headache hammering away at her head from the inside of her looked around her, wondering how she wound up on the floor. She vaguely recalled waking up earlier and falling over something and hitting her head . . . and then she remembered passing out after she found out that the object was not an it, but rather a person.

The person in question was nowhere to be seen though, so Serena assumed that the whole ordeal had merely been a dream, and that she'd rolled out of her bed and hit her head on her night stand in the middle of the night, which was something that was not uncommon for the girl.

Her hand curiously wandered up to her forehead, "Eep!" she squeaked as pain rocketed throughout her body, her fingers had brushed against a newly formed knot, the placement of the bump had been forgotten by the poor girl since her entire head was throbbing. This sort of thing was rather commonplace for Serena, so she wasn't worried about the knot on her head since she had done worse to herself before and been fine.

"And up we go. . . ." she said to herself quietly, rising to her feet without a hitch. She grabbed a hairbrush off of her dresser to comb out any tangles in her hair she'd gathered while she slept. The girl waddled over to her vanity mirror and started to brush her hair out. From behind her she heard a telltale squeak that sounded like bed springs being pushed down. . . .

The girl's eyes widened, and they slowly traveled to the part of the mirror which reflected the room behind her. . . .There she saw the redheaded man from her dream sitting on her bed!!!

Serena flipped around, dropped the hairbrush and pushed herself back against her vanity.

Her emotions struck like thunder, something that was somewhere between panic and shock. She let out an ear-piercing scream and dropped to the floor a second time, knocking over multiple things in the process. Passing out twice in one morning was a lot of work. . . .

Eliza. . . .

Somehow Serena's scream managed to be heard next door over the sounds of arguing. Both Eliza and Sheena stopped mid-sentence and stared at each other blankly. The sound was loud enough to have been made in that apartment, so for a moment each girl wondered if the other had shrieked without her opponent noticing. Then Eliza ran her hands down her face, stretching her fleshy cheeks as far as they would go in an attempt to regain the smallest ounce of sanity.

"Oh man, Serena . . . I swear if she is killing herself with her klutzy ways. . . ." Eliza grumbled to herself, sliding her feet into the discarded black flip-flops from last night.

Eliza had trained herself to sleep through the screams that Serena let out. But, once in a while if the scream sounded dire enough to Eliza's ears, she would go check on her friend, just in case. After all, with the way Serena was, she could trip and fall with some giant knife in her hand or something.

And yes, the girl had been reported to the apartment manager numerous times, but no action could be taken against either her or her mother since Serena only did this once in a long while, even if it was glass-shattering when it did occur. As Eliza grumbled to herself and hastily tightened a ponytail holder into her hair and put it back in a normal high ponytail, Sheena glanced at her curiously.

"Where are you going?" she asked, though she was suddenly quite confused at the moment since the fight she and Eliza had been having had suddenly halted.

"I'm going to go check up on the girl with the lungs of steel who just let out that scream," she replied, grabbing her keys and making her way toward the front door in the living room. But Eliza came to a stop and turned back to the Summoner, "Listen, you either come with me or you stay in here. I don't know if you really are who you say you are, but if you do stay in here then do NOT touch, or break a thing! And if you do come with me, do not do anything to surprise Serena, I would rather avoid seeing her get another head injury."

Sheena looked around at the small room and then back to the girl that was waiting for her decision, "I'm not going to be staying in here alone. I'm coming with you."

"Fine, but behave yourself, and no tricks." she replied, wanting to make sure that the woman got it.

Sheena followed her out of the Eliza locked her door, Sheena was busy studying the strange and unusual setup of the building. Eliza was already at Serena's door, knocking on it when she glanced back to the woman who claimed to be 'Sheena' only to see that she was craning her neck up, down, sideways and every other way it would go. It looked as if she was trying to look at everything at once. Needless to say, it was obviously strange behavior.

"Over here!" she said through her teeth, also giving a quick jerk with her head.

Sheena looked somewhat chagrined and quickly walked over to her side. Eliza had expected a bruised and apologetic Serena to answer the door, perhaps with a blush reddening her cheeks and a steady stream of 'Sorry! Sorry! I'm _so_ sorry!' flooding from her mouth. But as things had been going so far that morning, Eliza should've expected that things wouldn't be quite that easy. . . .

Eliza heard the lock on the inside of the apartment come undone with some trouble, as if Serena didn't know how to undo her door's own lock. At that, the girl felt apprehension overcome her, as if there were something really, **really**, wrong. At the sight of a _guy_ standing in the doorway she almost keeled over from shock, but then the features of this particular male came into focus. Totally unbelievable. . . .

"Well now, if it isn't the voluptuous Sheena! And who is this cute hunny?" the man asked, his eyes traveling over Eliza approvingly.

All Eliza could do was gape at the redhead man in front of her whose face was plastered over with a suggestive smile. Really, this could _not_ be happening to her again!

"Oh great, another cosplayer gone nuts!" she said to herself. She slapped her hands over her eyes, rubbing them trying to rid herself of the remnants of her nightmare to vanish.

'Maybe Serena's door is just really . . . dusty! And it's causing me to see things!' she thought to herself. "Yeah that's it . . . ." she muttered.

That's when Sheena spoke, "Zelos?! What are you doing here?"

That question managed to shoot down her dust theory, because as far as the girl knew, dust didn't affect your sense of hearing.

Eliza let out a groan at this. "Holy cow. . . . Both of you, inside the apartment, now!" she ordered, grabbing onto Sheena's forearm and pushing Zelos back inside, letting the metal apartment door slam behind her.

After which she promptly locked the deadbolt on the door, which, when the girl thought back on the situation, was possibly the stupidest thing she could have done in the situation. After all for all she knew, these two people whom she thought were nutty cosplayers, could have easily just have been murders or something!

The moment she had trapped herself inside with the two strangers, the girl glared at them as if she had never heard of the words 'fear' or 'caution' in her life. They were chatting with one another, trying to add up recent events which included where they were and how they had gotten there. Never mind that Eliza was standing right beside them with a very uncharitable expression which was growing less pleasant by the millisecond.

"I want to know right now, and I want to hear the truth. Who are you two, and how did you get into these apartments?!" she screamed out.

The woman might have claimed to be Sheena and looked just like her, but that was not possible. And the man that answered Serena's door may've looked just like Zelos Wilder, but to her that didn't matter. After all it was common for people to cosplay like this and look just like them in their costumes (even if it was less common for those sorts to break into random people's bedrooms and feign ignorance).But, she didn't believe that those two could really be _them_. It was impossible for stuff like that to happen in real life. It might have happened in fan fictions but not in real life. It . . . just couldn't! Right?

Sheena looked down at her, "I told you that I'm Sheena Fujibayashi, and I'm not something called a 'cosplayer'!" She looked at the girl in annoyance. "And as unbelievable as it is, this pervert standing next to me is really Tethe'alla's Chosen, Zelos Wilder," she motioned to the man standing next to her.

"Ouch! Sheena, that was mean. . . ." the man said sarcastically.

Eliza set a hand on her hip, "Like I buy that. I might be younger than you two, but I'm not stupid. I know that those two are only video game characters!!!"

That's when a moan from the back-most bedroom interrupted Eliza's interrogation. Eliza looked down the hall in panic at Serena's room and back to the man who'd answered the door. Seething fury overtook her features.

"Serena—! What did you do to her?!" Eliza yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Why do you automatically assume that I did something to that girl?! She's the one who tripped over me and fainted after laughing like a maniac!" Zelos said in his own defense, waving his hands in front of him as a sign of his innocence.

"I swear that if you so much as touched her, you're dead!!!" Eliza shouted, as she bolted through the hallway and into Serena's room, where she found her friend collapsed into a heap on the floor in front of her vanity. Accessories of all sorts, bottles and various things, were knocked off and scattered around the unconscious girl alone gave the room the appearance that there had been some sort of struggle in it earlier. . . . As well as the fact that when Eliza examined poor Serena, she found a large knot on her head (though she didn't doubt that Serena was indeed clumsy and could have caused the knot on her own).

But, given the current circumstances and the fact that a perverted acting guy had been inside Serena's apartment for who-knows-how-long, things weren't looking like the bruise was a self-inflicted injury. It looked as if Serena had been in a struggle against the intruder, and he'd used a blunt object to knock her out by smacking her on the head . . .

Now that she thought about it, the man did have a sword sheath on his side. Whether or not the sword he carried in it was real, the sheath was probably blunt enough to inflict an injury to a person's head bad enough to render the victim unconscious!

Eliza saw that Serena was moving a little, meaning that she was coming to . . . which did relieve her worries somewhat, but at the moment, the foremost thing on her mind was what the man might've done to her.

"Zelos, what happened exactly?" Eliza heard the woman who'd she'd found in her room coming down the hallway, along with the man.

"It's like I said, the girl tripped over me and knocked herself out after laughing like a maniac," he replied.

Eliza spun around, fury evident on her features. When the two entered Serena's room, Eliza gritted her teeth, "She knocked herself out?!" she pointed an accusing finger at Serena, as well as the spilled contents of the vanity. "If Serena did do something to knock herself out then why does it look like there was some sort of struggle in here?!"

Zelos looked taken aback at Eliza's statement, "S-She woke up after laughing like mad and grabbed a brush or something and went over to this thing and started to comb out her hair! She saw me then screamed and passed out again, and she knocked over all of that stuff!" he yelled out nervously. Though he knew that to be true, Serena was unconscious and the scene itself did look suspicious.

"A likely story!!! Now what did you do to her?!"

Sheena looked over to the angry brunette, though the ninja did know that the Chosen was a pervert as well as a peeping tom, but in the time she'd known the man she had come to know that he wouldn't ever do something like what this girl had been accusing him of. . . . Though she would admit that the scene did not exactly look innocent.

"Look, I'm willing to say that Zelos is perverted and can be an idiot—" Sheena began.

Zelos interrupted to loudly deny that.

"—but I do know that he wouldn't do something like this," she said calmly, trying to do something so they could sort out the ordeal rationally.

Eliza threw a death glare over to Sheena now, "Do you really think that I'll believe **you**?! After all, you know this guy and you both broke into Serena's apartment, as well as my own!!"

"I–I didn't touch the girl for the millionth time!" Zelos shouted.

"Enough of your lies!" Eliza shouted, and she then did something that neither Sheena nor Zelos expected, she launched herself full force at Zelos! She slammed into him and knocked him to the ground, herself landing on top of him. She did her best to pin him down, though her best wasn't very good.

"Ow! Geez, you're stronger than you look. . . ." Zelos said after Eliza plowed into him.

"What did you do to her?!" she shouted yet again.

But no sooner had Eliza had shouted, that she felt something of great force hit her in the side so hard that she was thrown off of the man and up into the air where she was slammed against the wall and then was left to fall onto Serena's bed in shock.

The words, "Pyre Seal!" had been shouted in the midst of everything. Eliza groaned as soon as the shock from whatever had just happened to her wore off. Her left side hurt like heck and she was completely baffled by how she had just flown across the room.

The woman who had been claiming to be Sheena held herself in that battle stance that she had been in when Eliza had first discovered her presence in her room.

"Would you calm down already and actually _listen_ to us so we can try to sort this out rationally?!" she yelled at Eliza, not letting her guard down to the girl.

The woman's words hadn't reached Eliza though. She was just busy trying to figure out what had exactly just happened to her. It was impossible for someone to have that much force behind something as simple as a slap or a regular punch. . . .

"You," Eliza muttered, "What did you just do. . . ?"

"I used one of my Artes to try and knock some sense into you!" Sheena responded.

Zelos looked at the girl, who had yet to try and move after what Sheena had done to her, "She used 'Pyre Seal' to knock you off of me." The man had gotten himself back to his feet, being cautious of the brunette and keeping his distance from her.

"Pyre Seal? B-But that's. . . ." Eliza shook her head, "That's impossible. . . ! Pyre Seal is . . . you can't have. . . ." Eliza was at an utter loss for words. If that woman really had just used Pyre Seal then, she really was Sheena Fujibayashi. And that man was also really Zelos Wilder. . . . "Oh my God! Y-You two r-really a-are . . . b-but this—h-how?"

The girl, though still in shock at the fact that these two really were characters from the video game, slid off of Serena's bed and stood unsteadily on her feet. She was still clutching onto her throbbing side, though. "Look, even if you two are—and I mean really are!—who you say you are—and trust me I am really starting to believe that!—it still doesn't change the fact that my best friend is unconscious on the floor!"

Sheena lowered her arms to her sides, but she didn't let her guard drop, "Maybe why you attacked Zelos is understandable, but that doesn't mean that you should've just jumped to conclusions."

"Yeah, seriously. After all both Sheena and I are both poor, lost travelers with no idea how we got here. . . ." the tone Zelos was taking with those words was one that was trying to earn him pity from Eliza.

Eliza let out a frustrated sigh, "Look I am willing to say that I shouldn't have done what I did. Okay? You will not get me to say anymore than that, but right now I just want to know what really happened to Serena."

That's when Serena let out a well-timed moan. Her hand moved up to her forehead, brushing underneath her dark brown bangs and to the large knot underneath. "E-Eliza. . . ?"

The brunette knelt down next to her friend and pulled her head up off of the floor. She let out a sigh and smiled slightly, "Serena! Thank God you're awake," she said, relieved to know that the girl was okay and hadn't gotten amnesia again like she had once before, "Listen Serena, I have a question I need you to answer. This guy, did he have anything to do with how you wound up knocked out on the floor? Like, did he do anything _funny_ to you. . . ?"

Serena's eyes squinted up in confusion at Eliza, "F-Funny. . . ?" her innocent face welled up in confusion, "E-Eliza. . . ? What do you mean by 'funny'? No, he didn't do anything to me. At least don't think he did."

"I told you that I didn't do anything to her!" Zelos insisted to Eliza, who just looked up at him in annoyance.

Serena suddenly looked up at hearing him yell at her friend and went wide-eyed. She let out a loud shriek at the sight of him and Sheena, "H-How do these people keep appearing?! I'm seeing two now! Eliza I think I'm hallucinating from my head injury!"

Zelos took this chance to act in the typical manner, "You see my sweet angel, I am not a hallucination, but rather I am your greatest dreams come true in one perfect package and–OW!!" Zelos's little speech was interrupted by Sheena, who had hit him hard over the head.

"Idiot," she muttered, "Zelos this is seriously not the time nor place to try and flirt, especially with this confused girl!"

Eliza sighed and sat down next to Serena, who was now also sitting up looking at Zelos and Sheena in complete confusion, "Okay, ignoring that stupid comment. . . . Serena, I wish that you were just hallucinating because if you were, that would be fixable and more understandable. . . . But, I don't think it's possible to share hallucinations, so it's very likely these guys are really standing here. I'd say they're either the real deal or part of some really creepy conspiracy involving cosplayers and hidden cameras. Or they're just plain crazy. I still haven't decided."

Sheena looked down at the brunette, "I told you before I don't know what a cosplayer is!"

Serena looked back at Eliza, "Eliza. . . ? What's going on?"

Eliza shook her head, "Okay, I guess it's time to quit avoiding the issue and fess up. Serena I'm not sure how, but I think it's safe to assume these two really are Sheena Fujibayashi and Zelos Wilder."

"So what? You believe us?" Zelos asked her.

Eliza glared up at him, "What do you think? Look, right now what we need to do is to try and sort things out."

"Eliza, i-is this a good thing or a bad thing?" Serena asked, she stood up alongside her best friend and walk over toward her bed so that both girls could sit in a more comfortable place.

"I'm pretty sure that this isn't a good thing, Serena. After all I'm pretty sure that video game characters aren't just suppose to pop up in the real world!" she replied as she plopped down on the bed.

"Hmm. . . . That's true, but Eliza we do get to actually meet real Symphonia characters! That's neat, although, like you said . . . they are video game characters and they are probably going to be a whole lot of trouble. . . ."

Zelos as well as Sheena sat down on the floor, across from the bed.

"We have no idea what you two are talking about. Why do you keep saying that this is the 'real' world and we're from something called a 'video game'? And how is it that we being here could be such a bad thing?" Zelos asked.

"He's right, I want to know what you two are talking about and what you mean by the real world. After all, we know that there are at least two worlds where we're from, so for all we know this could be a secret third! Plus, I agree with Zelos for once: how is it such a bad thing that we're here?" Sheena spoke up.

Eliza sighed, "Man this isn't going to be easy . . . let's see, how do we explain this without coming off as maniacs? After all you two probably think I'm nuts from what happened earlier. . . ."

". . . ." Neither of the two video game characters spoke up, nor did they deny it.

"Anyway. . . ." she muttered.

"Eliza, maybe in order for us to explain this it would be best for us to start with the video game?" Serena asked.

"Yeah, it would probably be best to start there."

Serena nodded to her, "S-Should I get the game's case? You left it here last night after the Gamecube exploded. . . ."

"That might help make our explanation more convincing to these two, so yeah would you mind getting it?"

"Okay!" Serena went to go get up in order to retrieve the empty game case, but as she did her feet wound up getting tangled up in her discarded sheets. . . . which resulted in her falling over, face-first onto the floor.

"Sorry!" she shouted, muffled by the carpet. All Eliza could to was groan at the girl.

Both Sheena and Zelos looked at the girl in bewilderment, "Um, what just happened. . . ?" Sheena asked.

"Heh, I guess you could say that's just Serena being . . . Serena," she laughed out in an almost sad tone.

"I got the game case!" Serena suddenly shouted, she was back to her feet and grinning victoriously.

And out of nowhere, both Sheena and Zelos were wondering just what they'd gotten into. . . .

After twenty or so odd attempts at trying to explain the current situation to Sheena and Zelos. . . .

"So, basically this all means that my beautiful face has become well known in a world that I've never been to? Really now, how could that be such a bad thing?" Zelos asked. It seemed as if he was completely oblivious to the severity of the situation at hand.

Eliza groaned for the umpteenth time that day, and she repeatedly smacked the top of her head with the game case. Really, this was not going as well as she had hoped it would. Sheena at least seemed to be starting to grasp what was going on from the girl's perspective, but she was _just_ starting.

"Zelos!" Sheena suddenly rapped him on the head, "Could you please try and take this seriously!? I mean I don't completely understand what's going on either, but from what these two are trying to say it sounds like things aren't looking to good. If their words are true, and from what I've been able to gather from it, it seems like that we're not in Tethe'alla anymore . . . we're not even in Sylvarant! That means were in a world that is completely unknown."

Zelos though, was too busy rubbing the spot on his head where Sheena had hit him to pay attention to the woman's words, "Sheena did you really have to hit me. . . ?"

"Are you okay? Would you like me to go get you some ice for that?" Serena chirped up. She was perched beside Eliza on the bed, looking down at him with an amazingly innocent and hopeful expression.

"Aw, aren't you so nice? See? Looks like I am popular in this world after all!" Zelos gloated.

Serena just stared at him with a confused look on her face, "Huh? I don't get it. I was just going to go get you some ice."

"Let me say one thing to you, Zelos. Where you're from you might be popular since you're the Chosen or whatever, but here we have nothing like that, so you aren't popular like you seem to think you are. Plus, Serena is always like this," Eliza said, trying to deflate Zelos' ego some.

"Ouch, you are mean. . . ." he replied.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. I'm just saying what I see to be true." Eliza shrugged, "Serena, I think it's safe to get him some ice now."

"Huh? Oh okay!" The dark-headed girl jumped up and ran out of the bedroom.

"We . . . we really have to be in a different world. . . ." Sheena spoke quietly, "I just tried and I couldn't sense any form of mana whatsoever. That also means that Cruxis doesn't know about this place." She looked down at her hands in her lap.

"Yeah, well until this morning neither Serena nor I knew that your world existed outside of a game disc. And also, as far as I know our world isn't governed over by a league of evil angels who want to awaken some sickly Goddess. . . ."

"Hold up a minute, if there isn't mana in this world then . . . this world is worse off than that hick-world Sylvarant!" Zelos yelled, looking around in mock terror.

"Look we don't have your precious magitechnology! But in most areas of our research and science, this world is more advanced!" Eliza rolled her eyes in annoyance, "We have electricity, running water and a bunch of other stuff that your world doesn't have! Even if it is more advanced than Sylvarant."

"So this world, even though it doesn't have mana, it gets its electricity from some other type of Electric spirit than Volt that doesn't live off of mana? Or is it even a spirit at all?" Sheena asked.

"There are no spirits in this world, no such things live in this realm." Eliza paused for a mere moment before continuing, only to be interrupted by a loud bang from the kitchen.

"O-Ow!" Serena suddenly cried.

"Hey Serena, you still alive out there?" Eliza called.

"Y-Yeah! I'm still alive! A bunch of TV dinners just fell on my foot!"

"Okay, since she isn't dead, I'll continue with what I was saying." she said, "We don't have anything like your realm's Summon Spirits in this world. Nothing governs over the various elements, here they just _exist_. Fire gets caused by a spark, light comes from the Sun, and water is a result of a chemical reaction. . . . And electricity is caused by the energy that is released by using certain methods with certain materials. We use wires and such to direct that energy to various places and things."

Serena suddenly walked in and shouted, "Got the ice!" she held up the plastic baggie of ice with a smile on her face. She walked over to Zelos and handed , "Here you go I hope it helps."

"See? She _is _nice to me!" Zelos said happily. Both Sheena and Eliza rolled their eyes at his senseless gloating.

"Uh . . . no comment." Eliza said.

"Did I do something weird again?" Serena asked.

"No, Serena. For once it wasn't you."

"So aside from the fact that Zelos is acting like an idiot—though I really shouldn't be surprised by that at all—you have a way to use electricity other than through the absorption of mana?" Sheena asked, ignoring Zelos's loud denial of being an idiot.

Eliza shrugged her shoulders, "Yeah pretty much. I don't know too much about the stuff myself so I can only give you two the basic layout. The main few things I can tell you are that our electricity comes in through wires, and that it isn't a good idea to jam anything other than a plug into an outlet in a wall."

"I know the last from experience myself, though I didn't electrocute myself, I just managed to knock out the circuit breaker," Serena inserted, a strange and slightly disturbing smile on her face.

"Okay then, I'll . . . keep that in mind," Sheena spoke confused by the smile on the girl's face.

Eliza sighed, "And now, what of you two? You two are fresh into this world, you know nothing about it and you two still can use your Artes. Plus you can summon, Sheena, and Zelos hits on any living female he sees. . . ."

"H-Hey! T-That's not true. . . . Most of the time. . . ." Zelos said, trying to deny what Eliza had said, though he couldn't.

Eliza sent a glare at him, "Fine, but you do hit on any attractive girl within ten years of your age range no matter what. You can't deny that."

". . . ." Zelos said nothing to that, since it was true.

"Eliza, what are we suppose to do with these two . . . ?" Serena asked as she looked down at the video game characters come to life.

"Well, it's not as if we can just let them wander freely or something around our world without some sort of supervision. . . . We could just keep them here for the next month, after all our moms are going to be gone until then. And maybe we can try to figure out how to get them home in that time frame," Eliza suggested.

At the moment, that _really_ was the only option that they had. . . .

"That'd be great! It could be the 'Adventure of the Great Zelos and his Cute Hunnies'!" Zelos shouted, only to earn a glare from both Sheena and Eliza.

"That sounds like fun!" Serena agreed flamboyantly as she clapped her hands together.

"No it doesn't, Serena! Please, when you don't understand what he is saying then just don't say anything to him, because you'll just egg him on. . . ." Eliza said.

"Huh. . . ? I don't understand. . . ." she muttered.

"Trust me, if you understood what he was saying, you would be acting just like your friend. . . ." Sheena spoke as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"So it is settled, you two have to stay here. And until we can clear this whole matter up, we're all staying together. After all with how Serena is, she can't be left alone with Zelos, not that I'd leave her alone with him even if she understood what he was saying," Eliza said.

Sheena looked up at the girl, "Don't worry I'll help you keep an eye on him."

"Thank you. Honestly, I don't think I can trust him around Serena."

"You know that I'm still here right?!" Zelos shouted, feeling insulted.

Eliza turned to him, "We know. Oh and a rule for you Zelos: if we do have to by some chance take you out in public, refrain from hitting on or flirting with any woman you see because no one—outside of a few sparse video gamers—knows who you are. And no suggestive lingo."

"How come?" Zelos whined.

"Three reasons. One, you are likely to get Maced. Two, you'll most likely wind up hurt, badly. And three, you could very well be arrested, and I am not going to be able to bail you out, nor would I bother since you didn't listen to me," Eliza said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

Zelos huffed, "Well then, I'm at least going to give my two new hunnies nicknames that suit them!"

"Eliza, should I have a bad feeling about how this ends?" Serena asked, curiosity evident in her voice.

"Yeah you should," Eliza said as she rubbed her hand tiredly across her face.

"I know! I'm going to call the one with the orchid colored eyes, 'The Cute Nymph'! And I'll call the one with gold eyes 'The Gorgeous Princess'!"

Eliza's palm met her forehead as her cheeks took a red tint, all the while Serena tittered on about being called a Nymph. Why hadn't she seen this coming?

"Zelos! We don't even know these girls' full names yet! And I seriously doubt that they will go by the ones you given them willingly!" Sheena shouted at him.

That's when Serena's head popped up, "Oh yeah, we should formally introduce ourselves since we'll be roomies! My name is Serena Attwater, it is very nice to meet you both," Serena said with a smile, "Okay Eliza your turn!"

"Fine," Eliza started with a sigh, she lifted her head up from her palm, "My name is Eliza Snow, and it is pleasant to make your acquaintances," she finished off, her voice unenthusiastic.

"I'm Sheena Fujibayashi of Mizuho, nice to meet you."

"And I'm the great Zelos Wilder! The one and only Chosen of Tethe'alla! No need to be shy around me!"

Serena let out a giggle at Zelos' introduction as Eliza let out a sigh. She knew that this was bound to be a really long month. . . .

* * *

-End of Chapter One

_-Through the twists and turns may our paths cross once more. . . ._


	3. Who Knows

Tales of Chaos I: Chaotic Beginnings

Disclaimer: We do not ToS, or ToS 2, simple as that sadly.

* * *

Chapter Two: Who Knows

* * *

'_Who knows what could happen,  
Do what you do,  
Just keep on laughing,  
One thing's true,  
There's always a brand-new day,  
I'm gonna live today like it's my last day. . . .' _-Avril Lavigne, Under my Skin

* * *

Serena stared up at her white ceiling tiredly, she'd had a very odd dream. . . . The only thoughts that were wondering through her mind at the moment were, 'That had to have been a dream.' she thought back on the "dream". Her dream involved two Tales of Symphonia characters somehow winding up living with her and Eliza. She'd woken up and tripped over one of them, and blacked out only to reawaken fully when Eliza had come over, with another video game character in tow. And after that, they'd try to sort the whole ordeal out and explain what was going to the two, as best as they possibly could. And then both she and Eliza had spent the rest of the day trying to sort out living conditions for themselves since they'd decided to live with the two for the next month, until their Mothers returned from their trip to Hawaii.

That was something that had not ended well, she and Eliza had debated on things all day and night and it ended abruptly when Serena had finally given in to Eliza, unwillingly that is, and tottered off back to bed, too sleepy to argue any longer. Leaving Eliza to deal with how the Symphonia characters were going to sleep, and where.

But that dream was completely crazy! 'Really, two Tales of Symphonia characters in the real world?' she thought to herself. The shock of Eliza's Gamecube explosion must not have worn off quite yet. . . . Either that, or the girl had been reading way too many fan fictions lately.

""I wonder how long I slept to have dreamt of something so bizarre." Serena hadn't meant to speak aloud, though her voice slipped from her lips in a quiet tone.

That's when, surprisingly to Serena, someone bent over her, this person having plum-black hair drawn back in a messy ponytail. . . .

"Dreamt of what?" the woman asked her. Serena let out a very loud scream and bolted up right, her forehead colliding with Sheena's leaving both of the women crying out in both shock and pain. Serena, though in pain and clutching onto her forehead, started to hurl whatever she could get her hands on at Sheena. One of which was her precious Froggy pillow. . . .

"Get out!!! Get out of here you . . . you weird person!!!" she shouted, not able to think of any witty insults on demand.

Sheena, whom was also clutching her forehead, shouted at her, "Serena stop it!"

Eliza, who had been out in the living room, was startled by the sudden amount of noise that was coming out of Serena's room, her head snapped around and she jumped to her feet. The manga which had been in her lap fell to the ground, the poor girl had been skimming through it in order to try and keep herself awake since she had been up all night keeping an un on Zelos, who she had no trust for. She did not trust him to be around her while she was asleep, or around Serena for that matter. She had herself dressed up in a brown decorated graphic tank-top with baggy tan cargo pants, and a pair of brown flip-flops on her feet. She had her light brown hair pulled back into a side ponytail which fell over her right shoulder, the reddish tips barely brushed the skin of her shoulder. She had bangs that were angled opposite of her ponytail, along with a strand of hair that hung in front of each of her ears, and framed her face.

She darted back to Serena's room to find out want had happened, as she walked through the doorway she was met with the sight of Serena's now messy room, and the sight of both Sheena and Serena clutching their foreheads, Serena though was ducking behind a pillow.

Eliza's eyes went back and forth between the two before asking, "What happened here. . . ?"

"I'm definitely _not_ doing that again." Sheena groaned.

"I'm sorry Sheena, I forgot that yesterday wasn't a dream. . . ."

"Okay then." Eliza muttered as she walked out of the room, again as she had said and thought to herself yesterday this really was bound to be a long month. After all, she was stuck with trying to find a way to get two video game characters back into a game that she didn't even have that was in one piece, and trying to keep them from getting into trouble.

From behind her Serena got up from the bed, still clutching the sore spot on her forehead. She followed behind Eliza until the drowsy girl collapsed onto the couch. Serena continued on into the kitchen, getting ready to cook breakfast for everyone, since Eliza always burnt her food to the point of it lighting on fire. Zelos already happened to be in the kitchen, poking through drawers and cabinets without bothering to close them . . . the refrigerator was included in this. One particular thing he opened was the dishwasher, which had been filled with approximately three weeks' worth of silverware. He had just bent down to look inside one of the lower cabinets when Serena came in. She saw her guest and opened her mouth to greet him when the dishwasher's door caught her feet. Before she could do more than let out a yelp, she tumbled forward yanking out the silverware drawer in an attempt to keep from slamming face-first into the cabinet Zelos was peering into at that very moment.

She didn't quite manage to avoid it. Serena hit it so hard that it closed on Zelos, who had been trying to figure out where the tantalizing cookie smell was coming from. His pained cry was muffled and he had to slide out of the cabinet sideways because someone was braced against it. When he saw her on the floor blinking up at him and giving a goofy smile, he wondered if she suffered severe brain damage from the fall.

"Sorry. I guess I forgot to close that last night."

"Uh, Yeah, probably," he agreed. Zelos was not about to argue if she wanted the blame.

She sat up and started retrieving all the butter knives, forks and spoons that had clattered all over the kitchen floor. There always seemed to be more when they were spread out.

Now all of this had happened before Eliza had the chance to sit back down, the girl uttered a groan as she turned around from the couch, and she stalked back to the kitchen to see what had happened. She had expected that maybe Serena knocked something over, or ran into something, but what she was not expecting was to see was Serena with a new welt forming on her forehead . . . and picking up scattered silverware next to a disheveled drawer and an open, and now dented dishwasher. . . . And to top that off by seeing Zelos standing over the injured girl, just watching her clean up a mess while not even bothering to offer his help to her!

Eliza got a very unhappy look on her face as she clenched her hands at her sides, "Zelos what did you do?!" she screamed.

"W-What?!" he asked, confused and slightly panicked.

"What did you do to Serena?!"

"Eliza I'm sorry!" Was the reply, but the apology had not come from Zelos. Instead it had come from the girl on the floor, silverware in hand. "This is my fault."

Eliza's eyes chillingly darted back to Zelos, "He did nothing strange to you to cause this?"

"I-I didn't touch her! Besides I didn't even know she was in the room until she tripped and nearly made me get stuck in that storage area!" he defended himself, while pointing to the cabinet.

"Did he do _anything_ weird?" Eliza asked in an icy tone.

"N-Not really." Serena muttered.

"Did he?!"

"W-Well. . . ."

"I told you I did nothing to her, or to cause this!" Zelos insisted, to say he was panicked would have been an understatement.

Eliza looked back at Serena who was currently tugging on a lock of her dark brown hair. "For the love of all that is decent! Tell me what the heck happened!" she finally shouted.

That's when Sheena popped around the corner of the doorway, curious about all the commotion in the kitchen.

"Whoa, what happened here?" she asked, seeing the mess of silverware on the black and white printed tile.

Eliza let out a frustrated whine, "That's what _I_ want to know!"

"Zelos, what did you do?" Sheena automatically glared at the man.

"Why do all the pretty girls assume it was _me_?" he whined, as he lowered his head in mock sorrow.

"Simple, because when something like this happens, usually the innocent girl is the scape goat. And at this particular moment; that would be Serena." Eliza spoke.

"But I didn't do anything!"

Eliza rolled her eyes, really she wasn't buying what he said at all, she opened her mouth to speak again when Serena's timid voice cut her off.

"U-Uh, u-um? Eliza, Sheena?" her voice squeaked from all of the tension in the air. Both of the women looked back down to Serena who held a slight flush over her face. "Z-Zelos didn't do anything, I-I didn't see that the dishwasher was open and I-I tripped over it and grabbed the drawer because it was open. . . . Zelos was opening one of the cabinets at the same time and I hit my head over it . . . I-I'm sorry you got the blame Zelos." Serena said looking up at the redhead apologetically, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

Zelos smiled at Serena's words and her timid and nervous demeanor, "Aww, aren't you just the sweetest? Really, my Cute Nymph, there's no need to be upset." Already, he was back to his usual self. . . .

Eliza growled audibly, "Do not call her by that stupid nickname! Her name is Serena! S-E-R-E-N-A! Got it memorized?!" she shouted as she knelt down.

Zelos chuckled to himself, "Now really, is there such a need to be so harsh, my Gorgeous Princess?" he teased her.

Eliza's face tinted a shade of red at the use of the name, "G-Geez . . . Z-Zelos–! Don't call me that!" She knelt down to the floor, her hands began to gather the various utensils off of the floor, while Zelos just smirked in response to the girl's order.

"E-Eliza you don't have to help!" Serena said nervously.

"I want to help."

"N-No, I can do it myself." Serena tugged at a lock of her hair.

"I _want_ to," Eliza said, her hands nearly full.

"B-But. . . ."

"Zelos, you ought to be helping out too. Sheena, you don't have to since this had nothing to do with you." Eliza said as she dumped the silverware in her hands into the dishwasher.

"Nah, I rather help since everyone else is. Zelos, everyone includes you!" Sheena yelled, beginning to kneel down.

"R-Right!" Zelos nearly yelped out of shock.

"N-No, it's fine!! _Really_!" Serena's cheeks turned red as she insisted upon doing it herself.

That's when Eliza shot one of her infamous death glares at Serena that promptly caused her to just shut up and let everyone help with the mess. Serena knew better than to get on Eliza's bad side, though, most people that knew her, knew that one as well.

After the mess of silverware was cleaned up off of the floor, and the dishwasher had been shut in order to prevent anymore kitchen catastrophes, Serena started to get things out to make breakfast. When Zelos noticed that Eliza wasn't offering her help to Serena in cooking breakfast he started to wonder why then the girl had been so adamant on helping to pick up the dining utensils, if she wasn't insisting on helping her cook. . . .

As the brunette tiredly stalked back over to her place on the couch, she snatched up her discarded 'Pet Shop of Horrors' manga and tried to go back to reading it as she had been before she'd bolted back to Serena's room. As she nonchalantly skimmed through the pages of the book, she felt someone else sit down on the couch next to her, she looked up from her book to see who had sat down. A look of annoyance crossed over her face when she saw that it was none other than Zelos who'd sat down, "What doyou want _now_?" she asked him.

He was sitting smack in the middle of Serena's couch so that he was facing her entirely, "So my Dear Eliza, I have something to ask you." he said to her in his typical tone of voice.

When Zelos called her 'His' Eliza let out a huff of annoyance, "I'm not even going to comment on you calling me your 'Dear', at least you actually used my name. . . ." she said to him monotone, "Anyway, what is your _important_ question?" she said, saying the word important sarcastically. In the background, both of them could hear Serena clunking about in the kitchen.

"I'm curious to know why you are so stubborn about helping Serena in cleaning things up, such as the silverware, but when it came to her cooking you leave without a word. What, are you too good to cook, or something?" he asked her.

Eliza glared over at him, "You know everything that you say when you aren't being a pervert is just as annoying as when you are?"

He let out a laugh, as if he thought what she were saying was funny. "All I want you to do is answer my question."

"You really want to know? Simple, everything I attempt to cook results in being a fire." she said as she brought her book back to her face, "There I answered your question. Now do me a favor; shut up and read." She grabbed a manga off of Serena's coffee table and shoved it into Zelos' hands. Before bed, Serena had left out a stack of manga for Sheena and Zelos to read if they got bored, only Serena didn't tell them that the books weren't like the ones that they probably had in Tethe'alla.

Sheena herself already had her nose stuck in one of the said books, she'd figured out how to read it thanks to a diagram she found that was printed on the last page of the book. Zelos on the other hand when he opened the book, didn't know that there was a diagram on the last page of the book so he wound up turning the book in every which direction, trying to figure which way the pictures went and how you were suppose to read the thing. Though some manga were printed in the American reading fashion, most that Serena owned were printed in the usual Japanese style, leaving it backwards, unlike the books Zelos was probably used to.

Eliza had found herself starting to nod off, even while she was trying her hardest to keep reading her own manga, the manga she'd shoved over to Zelos had kept him quiet, which was allowing the girl to doze in and out of awareness. Out of nowhere though, Zelos asked her yet another question, "Could you tell me how I'm suppose to read this thing? It's like, backwards or something."

Dully she looked over to him, the book he was trying to read was a volume of 'Trinity Blood', and he was without a doubt confused.

Eliza yawned, "I'm guessing manga doesn't exist in Tethe'alla," she muttered quietly, "Like you said Zelos, it's backwards. You read the panels reverse from normal books." she pointed out the panels went before she almost fell asleep.

What kept her from doing said action was an, "Eeeek!" from the kitchen. Eliza shot up, wide awake, "Serena what did you do this time?!" she shouted.

"I-I just . . . I just forgot to turn off the stove top." she replied sheepishly.

A sigh escaped Eliza's lips, "Just what am I to do with you?"

"Sorry Eliza," Serena muttered as she finished up the breakfast. By accident the girl had burnt the pancakes she was making, and she'd added a wee bit too much salt to the hash browns, but it wasn't something that couldn't be hidden with a little syrup. That was when Eliza stumbled into the kitchen without warning.

"Huh, Eliza what are you doing. . . ?" Serena asked the girl as she saw her reaching into the cereal cabinet.

"I'm eating cereal, I don't need anything with too much sugar in it this early in the morning."

Serena shrugged as she herself got out three plates, and distributed the food onto them in equal portions. Eliza on the other hand was pouring milk into her bowl of Cheerios.

"Sheena, Zelos I finished breakfast!" she announced. Serena didn't dare attempt to bring out someone else's food for fear that she would spill it. The game characters put down the manga they'd been reading and made their way to get their plates off of the counter.

At the dining table, Eliza sat down in between Zelos and Serena. Everyone but her began to eat their food, until Eliza's head splashed into her bowl of cereal. Everyone looked at her strangely trying to figure out if she was still alive. What gave that away, was the bubbles in the milk from her breathing. Serena poked Eliza's side.

"Eliza," She poked her again.

"Mhmm. . . ." Eliza's moan was drowned out by the milk and came out as more bubbles.

"Eliza! Wake up before you drown in your cereal!" Sheena's foot hit Eliza's in attempts to bring the girl around. And even _that _didn't work! "Maybe I ought to try to summon Undine and see if splashing her works..."

"I've got something better." Zelos spoke, Both of the girls looked over to him curiously.

"You'd better not do anything to Serena." Sheena glared at him.

"It doesn't involve her!!" Zelos shouted. "Just watch ok?" He moved toward Eliza slightly, not daring to get to close. After all, who knew what the girl was capable of in her sleep? He lowered himself until his chin was resting on the back of his hands, which were flat on the table, and stared straight across at Eliza. Then in a cooing voice he whispered, "Time to wake up, my Gorgeous Prin—"

"I told you not to call me that!!" Eliza's head shot up from the bowl of milk, spilling it everywhere.

"Told you it would work!" Zelos gloated.

Eliza looked around the table unaware of the Cheerios stuck to her face. "What did I miss?" she asked, confused.

"Uh, Eliza you have cereal stuck to your face," Serena said to the girl.

"W-What?!"

"Yeah it's all over your forehead and cheeks," Sheena pointed.

"Aw man," Eliza wiped the cereal off of her face with a napkin and let it fall back into the bowl that she knew she was not going to finish.

"Eliza, maybe you ought to go take a nap," Serena suggested quietly.

"I don't think so! Do you have any idea what _he's _like!?" she pointed her finger at Zelos who looked shocked.

"I-I didn't do anything!" he yelled with a hurt expression across his face.

"Yeah, not yet!" Eliza retorted.

"Don't worry I'll keep an eye on him for you," Sheena said. "You just fell asleep in your cereal, so I'm pretty sure you could use a nap."

Eliza let out a sigh knowing this was a fight she just couldn't win, as tired out as she was. "Fine, I'll go take a nap . . . but do _not_leave him alone with Serena." Eliza ordered, pointing a thumb at Zelos.

"I won't," Sheena replied as Eliza got up from the chair and wobbled over to the couch. The girl collapsed onto it, already back in the clutches of sleep.

"Poor Eliza, she really must have been tired," Serena sighed, "I wish she wouldn't stay up so late all the time."

"Whatever, just so you two know; don't bother asking me to wake her up again, because I'm not going to." Zelos said as he turned his attention back to the food on his plate.

After both Sheena and Zelos finished up their breakfasts, they decided to sate their curiosity about the strange new world they were in . . . by looking around Serena's apartment. Sheena wasn't shy about showing her full curiosity towards this matter, she looked around nearly every visible inch of the place. She picked up and examined the random trinkets that Serena's mother had gathered from her many trips, they'd been left out on shelves and on end tables for decorations.

She also looked at the paintings and family pictures that were hung up on the walls, considering the fact that cameras didn't exist in Tethe'alla, she thought that the photos were paintings done with some unusual paints, or some other material. She wondered how much money Serena's mother had to have in order to have so many portraits done of her and her children. . . . And she also had to wonder why someone would paint a portrait of a family with one of its member's eyes shut . . . and why that person was always Serena, no matter how recent the portrait or how old the girl's eyes were always shut or she had somehow made some sort of facial movement that ruined the picture.

Even though Sheena took her sweet time in carefully examining everything she saw, Zelos on the other hand did not show his curiosity so openly. Though he was just as curious Sheena about the things that Serena's apartment held, he wasn't as willing to show it. He instead played his curiosity down by only opening things like doors, cabinets and anything else that had a handle and hinges. More than anything though, he probably was just interesting in learning what Serena's family kept around the house, and not about the new alien world he was in.

Serena herself took her time in finishing up her food, she hated eating fast. After she gathered up her plate, along with Sheena and Zelos' and put them away in the dishwasher she went back to her room in order to change. The girl had wound up picking out a pair of jeans, a black zip up jacket that had silver thread woven in it so it had a sparkle to it, a grey T-shirt, and a pair of black Converse knock-offs. She wound up putting her dark-brown hair back into a braid, her hair fell down to her knees, and at the sides of her face she had a strand of hair that covered up her ears and fell down to her knees as the rest of her hair did, the girl kept simple eye length bangs that covered her forehead.

She walked out to the living room and gathered up the few volumes of manga she'd left out last night to take back to down the hall, and to her book stash. In front of the said closet was Zelos, he stood there with his hand on the door knob, about to turn it.

A panicked look came over her features, "No! Don't open that!" she cried out frantically, dropping the books in her arms.

"Why not?" he asked as he finished turning the knob. His question was answered when an avalanche of books fell over top of him. All that stuck out of the top of the mound was his arm,

"Z-Zelos. . . ?" she squeaked nervously, when he didn't respond she moved carefully around the edge of the pile, she remembered a little of her health class from her freshman year in high school, not much, but a little. She stuck out her index and middle finger like the teacher had shown in her class and looked for a pulse half way in-between his wrist and elbow, not remembering that you're supposed to look for a pulse at the wrist. . . . When she failed to find one her eyes went wide with shock.

"Oh my goodness," she muttered to herself, "I KILLED HIM!" she yelled loudly, really believing that Zelos was dead.

"I'm not dead!"

"Oh my gosh! I killed Zelos and now he's turned into a zombie!" Serena shouted out in panic. Racking her brain to see if she could remember if she had any Holy Water in the apartment, and wondering if Holy Water would work on a zombie...

"Who's a zombie?" Sheena asked, she poked her head into room at the sound of a panicking Serena, and the sound of an avalanche of books.

Serena, who was now shedding tears of fear and remorse from the thought that Zelos might be dead due to her books, turned to her, "My books killed Zelos and now he's a zombie!" Sheena's face went deadpan at this.

"My books killed Zelos! I'm a murderer!" she shouted sorrowfully before Sheena had a chance to speak.

"Your books . . . killed him and he's now a zombie?" Sheena asked skeptically.

"I looked for a pulse and I didn't find one and I said I killed him and then he talked!!" Serena shouted out all in one breath.

"Will you two **please **get these books off of me so I can move?!" Zelos yelled from under the books, he was growing impatient with the two for sitting by and chatting while he was left under the pile of books.

"Ahh!" Serena screamed, bolting up from where she was kneeling down and hiding behind Sheena for safety, "S-See?! H-He's dead but he talked!!!" she shrieked.

Sheena moved away from Serena without a care toward the book pile. She did a mock imitation of what Serena had done earlier with her hand, only finding the right spot for a pulse on Zelos' arm. "Serena, I think you had the wrong spot when you tried to take his pulse . . . because from what I feel now, he's alive, and he is not a zombie."

"Y-You mean my books didn't kill him?"

"No, far from it. They just buried him." she replied, standing up.

"Speaking of which, could you two get out from here now that you're sure that I'm not part of the undead?" Zelos asked.

"O-Oh! S-Sorry Zelos!" Serena squeaked, her voice was panicked as she slid down to her knees and began to move books off of the man. Sheena went to her knees to, but not as quickly as Serena had, and also started to help move books off of the Chosen.

"I might as well ask this since I have nothing better to say," Zelos said pausing before asking the question, "What's with all of these books?"

"I-I r-really like t-to read. . . ." Serena answered meekly to his question, her face went red at that.

"That's something I can tell just by seeing this." Sheena replied, she took one of the books into her hands and examined it, the cover read 'The Looking Glass Wars', "Are all of these books about your world?"

Serena shrugged, "W-Well they are sort of," she started as she moved more books off of Zelos, "I read fantasy books more than anything. . . . I also have a few science, and historical fiction books mixed in there somewhere. I'm not into romance very much, Eliza's the one who likes those kinds of books."

"Oh. . . ." Sheena said in a disappointed tone, she dropped 'The Looking Glass Wars' on top of Zelos' head, her interest lost.

"Ow!" Zelos protested, "Sheena did you _have_ to do that?!"

"Oh I'm sorry Zelos! A-Are you okay?" Serena asked him, shoving more of the books aside until he was able to get free. He didn't answer her, instead as soon as he was free and able to move he immediately stalked out to the living room and sat himself down next to Eliza on the couch.

"O-Oh . . . Zelos is probably mad at me now." Serena said sadly as she started to shove her books back into her closet with the help of Sheena.

"Don't worry, he's just angry that I dropped a book on his head. He'll get over it soon enough." Sheena told her.

"O-Okay, if you say so Sheena." she replied.

"So you've really read all of these books?" Sheena asked to move off of the previous topic, and to try and get Serena to be cheerful again.

Serena nodded happily, "Yep I have! Actually I've read some of these more than once!" she smiled as she braced herself back against the door and forced it shut so it wouldn't cause another avalanche.

"So, any of them good?"

"Yeah, I-I could pick out a few of them for you to read . . . if you wanted?" Serena suggested timidly, "B-But if you like Romance novels, you'd have to ask Eliza about those, she has lots more of them than I do."

"Hmm, I might do that later." She wasn't about to ask Serena to lend her any book, considering that it would probably be very, **very**, hard to re-open her closet. And asking Eliza as she was now was certainly not a wise idea.

Serena nodded her head, "O-Okay, I'll leave out a few good books, if you want to read them, you may. . . ."

"That sounds fine."

Serena considered lending her some books by Melissa Marr and went to her room to see if they might be there by any chance. As she was digging beneath her bed, she found some of them plus another book she'd been searching for everywhere for months. "Oh! My Vampirates book!" Serena cried out with joy, she had been halfway through the book when she lost it. After she set out the books, she set the Vampirates book on her bed to read sometime later on that day.

"Mmmm, n-no I don't wanna. . . ." Eliza moaned in her sleep, she was still out cold. Zelos, who'd decided against opening anything else in the apartment, settled on staying out in the living room. The two reasons behind that were, one; he'd almost gotten blamed for Serena's little spill in the kitchen earlier that morning, and two; he'd been buried under an avalanche of books. . . .

That being said, currently the man's only source of entertainment was Eliza, he watched her contort herself into the strangest positions he'd ever seen, and she apparently talked in her sleep. And she said some pretty off of the wall things too. One time she said something about being chased by a talking purple dinosaur . . . whatever that was.

Sheena's curiosity hadn't diminished in the very least, regardless of whatever misfortune she might have come across, that is until she came across a room full of boxes, cobwebs and dust. Serena was just coming down the hall to leave out the books she'd picked out for the ninja-girl just as she'd opened the door to the room. She let out a light yelp at the room's appearance.

"Uhh, y-you might not want to go in there. . . ." Serena said, her voice a few octaves higher than normal.

"I wasn't planning on it." Sheena's cringed at the thought of being trapped in that room.

"That's good. But, unfortunately for me, I have to clean _that_ up before my Mom gets back from Hawaii," Serena sighed, while motioning to the room with her hand.

"I think I understand how you feel."

"I guess I'd better start on it soon, but I don't feel like it right now." the girl shrugged.

Sheena shut the door with relish. Even for someone like her, who'd faced off with monsters and super-humanoid creatures, the room was a horrific sight that gave her the chills.

"I don't envy you, are you sure it's not haunted?" Sheena wondered.

Serena shrugged, "There really isn't much I can do. I have to listen to my Mom—w-wait, what? H-Haunted!? Of course not! I-It's just really, really . . . really . . . scary. Um, I'm gonna go relax." Serena teetered back to her room, retrieving a few sheets of blank, lineless paper and a pencil.

"What are you doing?" Sheena asked.

"O-Oh, I'm going to go draw. I like to do that once in a while." she replied as she slouched onto her bed and began to run the pencil over the paper in a curvy line.

"Oh. . . ." Sheena wandered out of the girl's bedroom slightly disappointed by the girl's answer. Drawing really didn't seem all that exciting to her. She decided to check up on Zelos and Eliza . . . when she reach the living room she found Zelos poking the side of the sleeping Eliza. She stared at the strange sight, less than amused, she was not pleased with his complete lack of respect for their host . . . make that hosts.

"I'm going to hate myself for asking this, but Zelos what are you doing?"

The man shrugged as he stopped the random prodding, "I was just seeing if she was still alive," he muttered, "That, and I was bored out here. I don't know how any of this world's weird gadgets work." He slid own in the couch, blanking staring ahead in boredom.

"Bored or not, you don't have any right to poke Eliza."

"What, is my darling, voluptuous Sheena jealous?" Zelos teased, though, that only earned him a rough smack to the head.

"Be quiet or I'll smack you!!" Sheena threatened him.

"Oww, Sheena, don't say that after you've already done it!" Zelos moaned.

The ninja choose to ignore the man, and took to looking around the room only then did she find the Television remote.

Moments Later. . . .

All she could recall was being chased by a talking purple dinosaur, before she was snapped out of her sleep by a loud sound.

"What the–?" Eliza started as she jerked from her restful position on the couch, "Ack!" she yelped as she slid off of the side of the furniture and landed face first on the floor.

She let out a groan, shaking her head as she got to her knees, trying to get a grip on where she was and what was going on.

She looked up to see that the source of the noise that had woken her up was none other than the Television. Both Sheena and Zelos were standing near it as if it were some sort of monster, but that wasn't the part that caused her to scream. . . .

"WHICH ONE OF YOU THREW THE REMOTE INTO THE TV?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as she jumped to her feet.

The volume of Eliza's shout caused both Tethe'allans to cringe and automatically turn back to the girl, it also caused Serena to drop all of her drawing supplies back in her room and bolt down the hallway to the living room.

At the sight of a remote sticking out of the middle television's screen Serena bit her bottom lip as hard as she could to keep herself from screeching in horror. . . .

"I-I didn't know how to work the thing!" Sheena yelled in panic.

"Oh some excuse! Sheena, between you and Zelos I would have thought you'd be the one who'd ask Serena or me about something you didn't know how to work!!! Not just chuck remote at the TV!" Eliza motioned to the broken TV violently.

"Ohhhh!!!! Mom is going to murder me!!!" Serena moaned, she had slid to the ground and was leaning against the hallway wall.

"W-We didn't know what it was! We thought it was a window that people could get into and out of!" Zelos interjected.

"It was just an image!" Eliza yelled as she smacked her forehead.

"How were we suppose to know that?!" Sheena replied.

Serena's wail of anguish cut off Eliza before she started to speak, "Oh, I'm so dead when mom gets home!"

Eliza went over to the poor girl and crouched down next to her, "Don't worry Serena, I'll just tell you that someone broke into your apartment and freaked out or something and threw the remote into the TV."

"Whatever. . . ." she replied in a murmur, she doubted that her mom would buy it. With a sigh the teenager stood to her feet and headed to the televison, getting ready to unplug it.

"Don't worry my darling Nymph, I'm sure your Mother will understand." Zelos said to the girl, trying to console her.

"Obviously you've never met my Mom. . . ." Serena replied.

"Zelos, you're only going to make it worse. And call her by her first name would you?" Eliza paused, "Whoa, Serena what do you think you're doing?" She grabbed the back of the girl's hoodie, stopping her in her tracks.

"I-I was going to go unplug the TV."

"Uh, no. You are not to go near broken electronics; do you remember what happened last time?" Eliza asked her, her hand still bunched up in the black cloth of the hoodie. Eliza seemed to have forgotten that in reality, _she'd_ been the one who had gotten messed up by a broken electronic.

"Oh yeah . . . I-I got shocked."

"I'll get it myself, ok? I am _so _not taking responsibility for you if you die on me." Eliza relinquished her hold on the hoodie. And she herself crept her hand back behind the entertainment center, pulling out every other plug back there before she finally pulled out the televison's. She withdrew her hand as she began to pull the thing out of its cubby hole, "Sheena, Zelos! One of you two help me lift this thing!" Of course, since Sheena was the one that broke the televison she helped Eliza out.

Serena walked past Eliza and Sheena with a smaller TV from her Mother's room, hoping that this one wouldn't get broken. She turned around as soon as the other two women were back in the room.

"Sheena, please don't break the this one!"

"Sorry, it just sort of freaked me out."

"It's ok, just please don't do it again." Serena had a knack of making people feel guilty without trying to.

"Don't worry! The Great Zelos will keep a watchful eye over the voluptuous Sheena and make sure she stays out of trouble!" Zelos suddenly interjected into the conversation, and before Sheena had a chance to yell at him another voice cut her off.

"You're the one who needs watching! Not Sheena!" Eliza's arms were crossed and in one of her hands was a spray-bottle of Bleach.

"Um, Eliza why do you have spray Bleach...?" Serena asked looking past Sheena.

"Oh, I found it under the kitchen sink and emptied it."

"Ok..." Serena said confused to why she'd do that.

"I rinsed out all of the Bleach from it."

"Uh-huh." She really didn't see where Eliza was going with this.

Eliza sighed, "Then I filled it back up with water. . . ."

"Yeah? And?" Serena asked her confused.

"Geez, I watched a show where I learned that people train circus animals by spraying them with water if they misbehave." Eliza went on, trying to see if Serena was catching on to her plan. In fact everyone looked at her confused. That's when Serena's brain clicked and she looked up, her orchid eyes widening in fear of Eliza, now armed with a bottle. . . .

"Anytime Zelos does anything stupid, suggestive or anything like that he gets sprayed," she concluded.

"Hey, you really think of me as no better than some animal!?" Zelos yelled, insulted by this assumption.

"Eliza he's not an animal. I mean, I-I did that with my cats to get them to stop fighting, but Zelos is human." Serena muttered out timidly.

"So? We need to teach him some way, and I don't think Sheena's smacks to the head are helping him along, nor are my lectures. I figure if it works on animals, why won't it work on a person?"

"You really are mean, you know that?" Zelos asked, his expression one of insult and annoyance.

"I do only what has to be done!" Eliza's hands met her hips, "Hate me if want, but I just want the least amount of trouble out of this whole ordeal as possible, and if we don't do something about your behavior–well who knows?!"

"I have to say that I agree with her." Sheena spoke up.

"Not you too, Sheena! You traitor. . . ." Zelos whined.

While Sheena, Eliza and Zelos all continued their conversation/argument, Serena herself just plopped onto the couch and watched them, not entirely sure of what was going on.

* * *

A/N: Well, there is the end of the second chapter. And we have a question to ask; is this story worth continuing? Really, really think on that and be honest. If we know that people think that this story is worth continuing, we'll continue, **so review!** Also, did we get Zelos and Sheena's personalities down right? We did our best too! And, we also wish to say that we are going to be doing poll questions at the end of each chapter from here on out! Feel free to answer, we love to hear your answers! The motivate us, like reviews do. We also give our answers to the questions!

**Poll Question: Who is your favorite character from Tales of Symphonia, and why are they your favorite?**

_Crimson Fallen Angel's Answer: Ah. . . . My favorite character would most likely have to be tie between both Sheena and Martel/Tabatha. I count Martel and Tabatha as the same person because of the fact that they both join together at the end of the game. But I like Sheena a lot because she is smart, independent, she kicks butt, and at the same time she is working to overcome her inner fears and the doubts she has about herself. Plus, she is the only Clumsy Ninja I know of! XD And I like Tabatha/Martel because if not for them, the game's events would not transpire. The original Martel was a very caring person, a good role model._

**Daughter of the Cerulean Water's Answer: Mine's a tie too, between Mithos and Colette!**

Well, please feel free to answer the poll!

-End of Chapter Two

-_Through the twists and turns may our paths cross once more. . . ._


	4. Real World

Tales of Chaos I: Chaotic Beginnings

Disclaimer: This is getting old. . . . But we don't own Tales of Symphonia. Believe us when we say that if we did, things would be very different!

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Chapter Three: Real World

'_Somewhere I know that I'm not all alone,  
With this bated breath I hold,  
My lungs want to explode.' _-All-American Rejects, When the World Comes Down

* * *

A loud shriek came back from Serena's bedroom, followed by a loud thump and the sound of things being tossed to the floor. During the night, while the girl had been fast asleep, she'd managed to worm her way across her small bed, and had been teetering on the edge of it for some time. It was only when the girl begun to awaken, did she move just enough to make her slide to the floor. And due to her unplanned reading binge the previous night, a small pile of books had been placed next to the head of the bed. Upon slipping off of the edge of the soft mattress, Serena made contact with the books, which had caused them to scatter in every direction.

Her eyes darted around the room while she was trying to gather her scruples, trying to figure out what had just happened and where she was. It was only when a book landed smack on her face did she realize that she was safe at home, in her own room.

She let out a sigh of relief, the poor girl had been having a horrible nightmare that she was falling down into a seemingly endless pit, and she wasn't able to stop herself before she'd almost hit the ground. Though, she didn't ever hit the ground because she awoke moments before that, when she had landed on her now scattered book pile.

"Oh thank the beets of the world that wasn't real. . . ." she breathed in relief, the girl started to move to sit up, laying on a pile of hard back books was not the most comfortable thing in the world.

"Looks like I'm gonna have another bruise." she muttered, rubbing the small of her back while grimacing. As she sat up, the book that had been on her face slid off of her and fell to her side.

She stood to her feet, and made an attempt to walk over to her vanity, only one of the girl's feet got caught on the back of her other leg's ankle and she fell to the floor again. For the second time in under five minutes, the girl let out a loud shriek.

Serena heard a set of footsteps making their way back to the dim room. The light switch clicked, and the lamp that rested next to the girl's door came to life. Her head automatically went up at hearing the light switch being flipped on. She let her eyes adjust to the brightness of the lamp, it was only then that she noticed that Zelos was leaning over her.

"Are you okay my Cute Nymph?" he asked her.

"I-I'm okay, sorry. I-I tripped o-over my leg." Serena replied, her face took on a shade of red at being found laying face first on floor.

"Geez, can't Serena make it at least one morning without injuring herself?!" Eliza's voice could be heard all the way out in the living room. Serena herself had almost forgotten about the fact that her best friend was sleeping out there, and about the fact that Sheena was out there as well.

"What? What do you mean you sent him back there alone?! Sheena!!!" Eliza shouted, "I thought I told you not to let him be around her alone!" she continued.

Zelos let out a sigh, "Looks like Princess still doesn't trust me." he half muttered to himself.

Serena worked her way back up to her knees and was now resting on them. "W-Well, Zelos . . . t-to be fair, s-she has only k-known you for two days." she nervously answered.

"True, true. I suppose it is hard for someone as temperamental as Eliza to trust another so hastily. Even someone as wonderful as I." he replied, turning back to the girl.

Serena squirmed a bit at hearing his words, "Y-you see, E-Eliza has had some e-experiences where h-her trust has been b-betrayed and–!"

Zelos stopped Serena before she could finish her explanation, "Now, my darling Nymph, don't share secrets about another person in their place. I am curious to know more about Eliza, but I would rather hear her tell why she does not trust easily herself." he paused, "Is that all right?"

Out in the living room Eliza was still going on a tangent about the fact that Sheena had sent Zelos back to Serena's room alone. The thought about even going back to the room and supervising them completely slipping her mind.

Serena's cheeks flared red, "Y-Yes. . . . I-I'm sorry, it's just a habit I have. I tend to defend my friends without even thinking about it, or about what I'm saying!" she laughed nervously, "T-That's why Eliza is so protective over me, I don't think through a lot of things, and I don't get what people are talking about a lot because I'm really naive to the ways of the world. . . . O-Or that's what Eliza's said before. But, j-just give her a little time, a-and I'm sure she'll come around and s-start to trust you." Serena had started to trace circles on the carpet in front of her with her index finger nervously, she was looking down, embarrassed by the fact she'd almost told one of Eliza's secrets.

"All right. I don't see why I shouldn't do that." Zelos knelt down in front of Serena, "Now, how's about we get you up off of the floor and to your feet? A girl as cute as you shouldn't be spending so much time like this."

At being called cute, Serena half choked and looked up completely red faced at Zelos, who was just smiling teasingly at her. "O-Okay!" she agreed, though from being so nervous Serena found that she couldn't control the volume of her voice and she wound up squeaking. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to squeak–!" she tried to apologize, only to find that she was still squeaking. "Eep!" She threw her hands over top of her mouth in a panic.

"You're so cute when you're panicking." Zelos laughed.

And like it was bound to happen, it occurred to Eliza that if she was so concerned about Serena being alone with Zelos, why not go back to the room herself? Though, she happened to wander into the room just in time to hear the last few words Serena and Zelos had exchanged.

Immediately the girl got the wrong impression at seeing how close Zelos was to Serena, and also from the fact that Serena was as red as a beet.

"Get up and back away from Serena, **now**!" she ordered from the doorway.

Both individuals looked over at the angry brunette, Serena hands dropped away from her mouth when she heard Eliza speak. "E-Eliza. . . !" she started, only to be cut off by Zelos.

"Okay, whatever you say my Gorgeous Princess." he said as he stood up and backed away from her. "Your wish is my command." he teased her, winking while he said it.

Eliza blushed in embarrassment, "S-Shut up you pervert. . . ." her voice wavered while she spoke. She moved from the doorway over to Serena who was still on the floor.

She herself knelt down next to the sixteen-year-old, "You okay Serena?"

The dark-haired girl nodded, "I-I'm fine, I just tripped."

"And _he_ didn't do anything to you did he?" She glared daggers at Zelos, who was still standing nearby.

She shook her head, "N-No, Eliza. Z-Zelos didn't do anything."

"Hmm." Was all Eliza replied with, and it was skeptical. "Fine, I'll buy that, for now." Eliza stood up to her feet and held her hand out to Serena, "Need some help?"

A nervous smile crossed her face and she grabbed onto Eliza's outstretched hand. "Y-Yeah, thanks Eliza." Eliza helped pull the girl up to her feet, no expression crossing her face.

Serena teetered over to her vanity and started to grab the things she would need to use in her 'morning rituals'. Really, it was just things she used to wash off her face and comb her hair.

Meanwhile, Eliza turned to face Zelos who was now leaning against the door of Serena's bedroom, nonchalantly observing both girls, the typical arrogant expression on his face.

A look of annoyance crossed over the brunette's face at this, "Why did I have to get stuck taking care of a narcissistic pervert and a ninja summoner from another world. . . ?" she asked herself with a sigh, running her hand through her hair that was out of its usual side ponytail due to the fact that the girl had just woken up only minutes before she'd came into Serena's room. Eliza was ready to leave Serena to her morning routine, but Zelos had yet to move from his spot.

Eliza set her hands on her hips and waited for him to move for the door, and to stop looking at Serena. Annoyance overcame the girl and she got fed up of waiting on him, so she grabbed him by the forearm, and took to dragging the man out of room herself. "Come on you pervert, it's time to stop staring at Serena and to leave her be!" she half shouted.

"Aww, but Princess!" he whined while he was pulled out of the room and back out to the living room. Unbeknownst to Eliza, what had been going through the man's mind while he had been looking at Serena, was relating to what the two had discussed. About giving Eliza time to learn to trust him. . . . He wondered if it were possible for her to ever actually trust him. After all, even with Lloyd's group, it was fairly certain that no one held any faith in him yet and none in the small group were as critical or as harsh as Eliza seemed to be. Was it **really** possible that she would one day trust him?

Sometime Later. . . .

A little while after Serena finished her normal morning routine of combing out her extraordinary long hair and washing her face, she managed to find some clothes that suited her mood. She traipsed out to the kitchen in order to eat some breakfast, her outfit was simple, like every other day. A pair of blue jeans, a blue V-neck shirt over a long sleeve white shirt and she had her hair pulled back into a braid, like yesterday.

After she made herself a bowl of cereal, she sat down next to Eliza, who was already eating at the bar counter. Being the fact that the girl managed to burn nearly everything she cooked, she had stuck a couple of pop tarts in the toaster for Sheena and Zelos to eat for their breakfasts. Luckily, Serena's mother happened to buy said toaster pastries on a weekly basis, so there happened to be a ton of boxes in the cabinet that still had two unopened packs or more contained within.

Eliza was busy munching on some toast she'd made, the girl had decided to avoid cereal for a while after nearly drowning in her Cheerios the previous day . . . who could blame her? When Serena's bowl of Mini Wheats made contact with the wood counter next to her plate of toast, the brunette eyed the cereal cautiously. She was going to be taking no chances. Giving the cereal the 'evil eye', she slowly took another bite of her toast.

After Serena had swallowed a few bites of the cereal Eliza was glaring at, a thought crossed her mind that she spoke aloud by mistake. "Huh, what are Zelos and Sheena suppose to wear for the next month. . . ? Until we can get them home, they are going to need a change of clothes." the girl thought out loud, thoughtfully positioning the spoon to her chin while looking up at the smooth white ceiling of her kitchen.

'Shoot, I didn't give a lick of thought about that." Eliza replied while biting into her toast.

Serena squeaked in surprise, "I-I said that out loud!?" she half shouted at Eliza, who just nodded in response. "O-Oh . . . I didn't mean to." she murmured.

"Well, it's a good thing you said something about it, regardless of if you meant to or not." Eliza said after she swallowed a sip of her milk. She released a sigh, and set down the uneaten part of her toast on her plate and started to think about what Serena had said. "Well, as far as I see it, Sheena would be able to borrow our clothes, probably. My jeans would more than likely be too big for her, but a belt can solve that issue. And shirt wise, she's probably more, uh, your size in that department. . . ." Eliza cleared her throat when she said that.

At that Serena's face tinted red, knowing full well what Eliza meant by that. "U-Umm. . . ." she tried to respond, only she found herself speechless. So, the girl took back to munching down some more of her cereal.

"Sorry Serena, Sheena's pretty much taken care of, but . . . as for Zelos, there is no way he can borrow **our**stuff. I think he might look a bit funny if he did." Eliza tried to disguise a laugh with a cough. A sigh escaped her lips, "I think that we might have to make a trip to the mall."

Serena nearly choked upon hearing Eliza's suggestion.

From the living room, where the girl's conversation could be clearly heard, Sheena perked up and asked curiously, "What's a mall?"

"You'll see." Eliza answered.

After a few more coughs and readjusting her breathing, Serena looked at Eliza like she was crazy. "Do you really think that it's a good idea taking them to a mall Eliza?" The brunette was calm, and sipping down her milk.

After setting her cup down she picked her toast back up, "I'm sure it'll be fine Serena." Eliza answered, motioning with her hand nonchalantly, as if she were trying to shoo away the other girl's doubts.

Serena suddenly didn't feel so hungry anymore, in fact her tummy now felt a slight bit soured. Looking at her now soggy Mini Wheats, the girl said a line that sounded like it should have come from Eliza and not her. "I-I've got a bad feeling about this. . . ."

"Don't worry Serena! You've got me to keep those two under wraps!" Eliza said, confidence was evident in her voice. The girl was being abnormally calm, and rather casual, something that was not typical of her.

A nearly inaudible whimper formed in Serena's throat, and she said "I hope you're right. . . ." Despite the fact that the girl was not comfortable of the idea of taking the two video game characters to the mall, she got ready to go. After she dropped her bowl into the sink, leaving its contents to be dealt with at a later time, she proceeded back to her room to start gathering up what she needed to bring along with her.

Eliza finished off what was left of her toast and milk, and dropped her dishes into the sink along side Serena's. Serena's apartment was like a second home to Eliza. During the course of a normal week, Eliza spent as much as three nights there. So she didn't feel guilty about dropping her dishes off in the sink to be dealt with later.

Deciding to wait on the girl, Eliza leaned herself up against a wall near the door, and she absent-mindedly began to fiddle with the reddish tips of her hair that were hanging over her shoulder. Lord knows that Eliza loved Serena like a sister, but the girl could take **forever** to get ready!

When Zelos came near her, and leaned against the wall right next to her Eliza let her eyes followed him. Still twiddling the tips of her hair she asked, "What do you want?"

"I'm curious, what is a 'mall'? And why is Serena so afraid to take us there? After all, it seems like _you_ would be the one who would be so hesitant to take Sheena and I out in public, not my Cute Nymph." Zelos crossed his arms while he spoke.

With a sigh, Eliza kicked off from the wall and looked at him, "Uh, well, to put it simply a mall is a decent sized building that holds a variety of stores in it that carry a lot of things, from clothes to shoes to pretty much anything else you can think of. And as for Serena's fears, it has to do with the fact that the Lord only knows what could happen when we get you and Sheena out in public, that, and her Mother happens to be a MAJOR shopaholic, she drags Serena to the mall every other weekend and spends hours upon hours there."

Before anyone else could say anything Eliza continued, "Now, about you and Sheena. . . . We need to go over a few ground rules you two **have** to follow to a T in order to stay out of trouble."

"Don't worry about me! I won't cause any trouble, although you might want to speak with him. . . ." Sheena said, jabbing her thumb in Zelos' direction as she walked back out into the living room from who knows where.

"Sheena, you don't have to be so mean to me. . . ." Zelos half cried.

"Ugh, no actually, she's right. Of course I will be worried about her, but you're the _one_ I need to be watching out for. Unlike you, she doesn't flirt with complete strangers of the opposite sex." Eliza crossed her arms, "Now, listen to me **very** clearly as I say this; Zelos, do not–repeat–not, go around hitting on random girls, and can it with the suggestive lingo! Doing something like that in this world is just asking for trouble! That sort of thing makes you liable to wind up arrested, or–if that particular female has a boyfriend or husband–roughed up pretty well. That, and possibly maced, and I'll personally give you a good slap that'll leave a bruise regardless of what happens to you. Are we clear?"

The man just stared at the girl in shock, he knew that Eliza was definitely something he was not used to finding in a woman, but . . . she was scary, even in his book. Frankly, he wasn't sure if she was being serious about the consequences of what he considered normal behavior. But still he answered, "I-I think so. . . ."

"Good, and remember if you slip up, it won't be pretty."

Back in her room Serena was finishing up getting ready for her trip to the mall, she slipped a small pad of sketch paper and a pencil into the seemingly endless depths of the purse and she found that she was fully prepared to make the dreaded trip. Grabbing her keys she stalked back out in the living shouting, "Hey! I'm ready!" Only, as she made it into the living room the girl's foot caught underneath a rug that was lying in the hallway and she went down like a bag of rice.

This caused Eliza to groan, and bring her palm to her forehead, leaving it there she said, "One; I have no comment on this, and two; lets go to my place so _I _can change." Slipping her hand into her frontmost right pocket from her forehead, she pulled out her keys.

Serena squeaked out an, "I'm sorry!" And hastily got back to her feet as Eliza walked out the front door and over to her own.

Serena locked her door as Eliza did the opposite with her own, as she cracked open the door for the first time in two days she pleaded, "Please, no one break anything in here!" She opened the door fully, letting everyone inside the living quarters.

"So this is where my Princess grew up!" Zelos half shouted, a teasing tone in his voice.

The girl sent an automatic glare at the man, and slammed the metal door of her apartment as soon as Serena made it in. "I'm not _your_ anything Zelos! And for the love of God, use my name!" she yelled.

All Zelos was did was laugh at the girl's reaction, which further annoyed the brunette who just uttered a very loud frustrated groan, and marched back to her room in order to gather her clothing. Both Sheena and Serena sat down on the couch that was nearest to the door of Eliza's apartment, waiting for the girl to get prepared. Both of whom, were chattering away, Sheena asking questions about how Serena's society worked, and about various other things, and Serena answering.

Now, most of Sheena's curiosity about how Serena and Eliza lived had been sated yesterday, after going through Serena's apartment. B-u-t . . . Zelos's was not. Due to his previous run of bad luck with closets, he just stuck to opening drawers. Though, the man quickly found himself bored by the fact that the apartment's designs were very unimaginative, and also because the contents he was finding in the drawers closely mirrored the contents he came across in Serena's apartment.

That is . . . until he made it back to Eliza's room, the girl was busy, shut away in her closet, trying to find a suitable outfit to wear. Compared to Serena's room, Eliza kept her room fairly clean, despite some things laying on the beige carpet, the room was pretty well maintained. While poking through one of the drawers, Zelos came across a stack of old sketch books, neatly placed alongside multitudes of colored pencils. Eliza stepped out of her closet, carrying several articles of clothing she was considering wearing. Upon seeing Zelos in her room, flipping through one of her sketch books, she just rolled her eyes and shook her head with a sigh. Honestly, she didn't really care that he was looking through her sketch books, she was quite proud of her drawings and designs.

But, as she was setting down the clothing, she saw that he was reaching for one particular drawer. . . .

She went rigid with shock, and panic because what was in that drawer was something that no normal girl wants a guy to see. "_Do not touch that drawer!!!_" she shouted. Either Zelos hadn't heard her, or he was just ignoring her.

Almost like second nature, the girl practically threw herself at the man. The only thing that Eliza was sure of when she hit him, was that she knocked into him with her shoulder first, then she fell over. . . . Though, it was a bit of a blur due to her panicked state, and from her embarrassment. Eliza's tackle had indeed been quite effective, both she and Zelos had landed across the room, far from the dresser, and its forbidden drawer.

For a few moments, Zelos was completely disoriented, not knowing what the heck had just happened to him. It occurred to him that he was having some difficulty breathing, and he realized that it was because Eliza had fallen directly on top of him. Her head was against his chest and she was almost literally clinging to the man.

Eliza herself finally regained her scruples, and her eyes widened when she came to realize the compromising position she was currently in. Her cheeks went beet red, and she rocketed upwards, something of a high-pitched squeal sounded out from her lungs as she did so. Anger, and embarrassment mixed well together over her features.

That had most certainly **not** been what the girl had been trying to do, but it wasn't like she could have let him see her unmentionables!

Zelos sat up and looked at the girl with a suggestive smile, "So, you _do_ like me."

Eliza's face went redder at this, "I-I do not! I h-had to st-stop you from l-looking in-inside the d-dresser!" the flustered girl took a few steps backwards, not minding her footing.

What she didn't notice as she tried to take another step back was that a slick plastic folder was on the floor. When her foot made contact with it, it caused said foot to slide out from underneath her. With yet another uncharacteristic squeal, the girl fell backwards, her head making contact with the wall under the window in her room.

"Ow," she groaned. Gingerly the girl rubbed the back of her head, not paying any heed to anything else at that moment.

"Aww, is my Princess hurt?" Zelos half-teased her, Eliza didn't realize just how close Zelos had gotten to her after she'd taken her little spill.

Eliza growled at hearing the nickname, "Why can't you get it through your head that I hate that stupid nick–!" her words were abruptly halted when she opened her eyes and realized that Zelos had practically cornered her. ". . . .name." she finished her sentence.

The redhead in question was leaning over top of Eliza, a smirk on his face, Eliza growled again. "Feisty little thing aren't we?"

"Shut up you pervert and give me some breathing room!"

To this Zelos let out a laugh, and did the _opposite_ of what Eliza had demanded. Instead of backing away from the angered brunette, he leaned down even further, to the point of where their noses were almost touching. "And if I don't?"

With an angry grunt, Eliza shoved one of her feet up and hit the man right in the stomach, knocking him away from her and once more to the floor. "_That's _what'll happen!!!" she screamed. Eliza was infuriated, knowing full well that Zelos was just messing around with her for the fun of it. She stood to her feet, and seemingly out of nowhere, the spray bottle the girl had, had the previous day appeared in her hands. "Now, do me a favor and cool down, idiot!" She squeezed the top of said bottle off and dumped its contents on Zelos, meaning that he was soaked in seconds.

"Heh, you really sure you wanted me to just cool down?" Zelos teased her again, beginning to sit back up.

"SHUT UP!" Eliza cried, instinctively chucking the empty Bleach bottle at Zelos, it hitting the man right smack in the forehead. With a huff she crossed her arms and glared at Zelos, who was now rubbing his forehead, "God, how does _anyone_ put up with you?! The only thing you've done since you got here is mindlessly flirt with Serena, or purposefully get on my nerves!"

Pretending to not pay attention to what Eliza was saying, Zelos reach over and picked up the bottle that had Eliza had thrown at him. "Where the heck did you get this thing from? I thought you left it back at Serena's."

"Ugh! I give up! I say one thing to you, and you move completely off of topic." Eliza cried.

"Now what did he do?!" Sheena suddenly appeared in the doorway. Eliza looked up at her, a faint blush lingered on her face.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh, just the usual. You know, like, being a complete idiot!"

"Heh, and this coming from the girl who practically threw herself at me." Zelos interjected. Eliza's face went redder.

Sheena looked between the Chosen and the teenager, confused. "Do I want to know?" she asked hesitantly.

"H-He was going to open something that contained something personal! I told him to not open it, but he ignored me, what else could have I done?!" Eliza screamed.

"Something personal?" Zelos questioned, "What are you–? Ohh, _now_ I get it!"

This made Eliza visibly tense up, and for her face to instantly go beet red, as did Sheena, just because she felt for the girl.

"_So_, even the Princess has a weak point!" Zelos teased.

Eliza bit her bottom lip, "W-Well of course I do, any normal woman would be embarrassed about that!"

Before anyone else could say anything, Serena traipsed into the room, "What's wrong?" the girl looked around the room, "Huh? Eliza, why are you and Sheena all red, and why is Zelos on the floor wet?"

"Don't ask. . . ." Eliza spoke through her teeth, not wanting to recount the events again.

Zelos was starting to get to his feet, rubbing his hand over the now sore spot on his forehead, where the bleach bottle had hit him. One thing that could be said about Eliza was that the girl had one heck of an arm. . . . Serena went over to him, concern lit up her bright eyes. "A-Are you okay Zelos? Do you want me to get you a towel?"

"Nice to see that someone is at **least** worried about me!" he shouted.

Eliza rolled her eyes, "Oh shut it, I might actually be concerned for your well being if you didn't get on my nerves!"

She turned to Serena calmly, "And Serena no, he does not need a towel."

"But . . . he's soaked. . . ."

"Trust me, he'll be fine."

"Oh, does he like water too? I can't wait until it rains again!" Serena yelled, totally missing the whole point of what Eliza was attempting to do. All the girl could do was sigh enviously at her friend's innocence and naivete.

"I give up. . . ." she went and got Zelos a towel herself, throwing it at him haphazardly.

He caught it, a scowl over his face at the girl's attitude. "Oh, _thanks_," he said sarcastically.

Saying nothing to the man, and noticing that both Sheena and Serena had gone back out to the living room, she grabbed her clothes and locked herself up in the bathroom. A few minutes later she emerged, busily pulling up her hair into the side ponytail she wore it in almost always. The girl had wound up picking out a red V-neck T shirt to wear over a black tank top, and a pair of dark wash jeans. She opted to wear her black flip-flops that day just because she didn't feel like tying a pair of shoe laces. Finishing up the ponytail, Eliza noticed that Zelos had wandered back out into the living room himself.

She grabbed her keys, and her purse, slinging it over her shoulder. With a sigh she walked out to the living room and announced, "Okay; let's go."

But, as soon as Eliza said that she froze right in front of her door and turned back around, "Oh yeah. Can't believe that this actually slipped my mind. . . ." she muttered to herself looking up at both Sheena and Zelos.

"Sheena, Zelos, your weapons; hand them over." she said.

"W-What?! Why?" Sheena cried.

Zelos himself actually didn't say a word about Eliza's demand, instead he actually behaved himself and did what she requested.

Setting Zelos's sword down on the couch that was nearest to the apartment door, Eliza looked up at her, "Because Sheena, in this world it isn't normal for people to be wandering around outside carrying weapons on them at all times." she stood up and held her hand out to the woman, "Hand your cards over, now."

Hesitantly, Sheena reached into her kimono top and pulled out a thick stack of multi-colored cards, and she handed them to Eliza. "Here. . . . Be careful with them! The ones that are elementally imbued can react to someone if they aren't trained to use them!" she warned.

Eliza sighed, "Don't worry, I'm just putting them on the couch, you can pick them up when we get back home." After placing the stack of cards on the couch she turned around and headed to the door.

Serena started to bite at her bottom lip nervously, though Eliza was fairly confident in her abilities to keep the Symphonia characters under reigns, she wasn't so sure herself. She trusted Eliza with her life, _but_. . . .

"Serena! Are you going to stand there all day twiddling your fingers, or are you coming to the mall with us?" Eliza shouted at the girl.

The girl squeaked in surprise, having been so tied up in her own thoughts that she had failed to notice that Sheena, Zelos and Eliza were waiting for her out in the hallway.

"C-Coming Eliza!" she cried nervously before bolting out the door and into the hall.

As Eliza locked the door behind her, Serena's face went red from embarrassment, as well as from fear. . . . Eliza had tried to quell her fears, but she could not shake the feeling that something was going to go really, really wrong today.

Muttering something incoherent to herself, Eliza pulled her keys from her purse and proceeded to look her door.

Serena had already started down the stairs before the rest of the group, her mind still caught up in her worries, the girl managed to miss one of said steps. And with but a squeak and a squeal, the sixteen year-old disappeared from view. Eliza visibly flinched upon hearing the sounds of Serena sliding down the metal steps.

Without hesitation she turned and jumped down the staircase. Eliza landed on the floor next to Serena who was lying on her back, dazed and staring at the ceiling. "You okay?"

The clumsy girl looked up at Eliza, her eyes half-filled with tears. "Y-Yeah I'm fine." she said. Truthfully her rear wasn't feeling quite so pleasant, but it wasn't anything she couldn't deal with.

Eliza eyed her suspiciously as she held out her hand to help the girl up. "You know, you really need to be more careful, Serena. I'm amazed you've even made it to sixteen."

"Now, now. Is there really a need to be so cold all the time?" Zelos asked, watching Serena as she regained her feet and rubbed her sore backside.

"Zelos, I think she was just joking," Sheena explained.

"I'm not like this all the time you know! I only act this way when I'm annoyed by something . . . or _someone_." Eliza muttered the last part under her breath to herself.

"Could have fooled me," he replied. Eliza shrugged nonchalantly in response.

At the entrance to the building, Eliza held the door open to a world unknown to Zelos and Sheena. She waited for the three to exit before letting herself though. Well, she did until she heard a sharp ear-piercing screech come from Serena, somehow the girl had managed to walk into the corner of the door while Eliza hadn't been looking. Eliza went to the girl who was now kneeling on the ground, holding her nose.

"Serena," Eliza sighed in frustration, "did you break your nose again or is it just bleeding?"

"I-I'm ok!" she shouted as she attempted to stand, only to start to fall backwards, until Eliza caught her by the sleeve of her hoodie.

"Serena. Would you please be more careful?!" Eliza shouted.

"You two are quite the pair. . . ." Sheena said shaking her head at them. The ninja wondered if most people in this city were like her hosts.

Eliza looked up to Sheena from Serena, who was now standing up and holding a tissue to her nose, "Yeah, we get that a lot." she replied.

"Ok! The bleeding is slowing! We can go!" Serena shouted happily, still holding a reddened tissue up to her nose.

"Serena," Eliza started, "do me, as well as yourself, a favor and keep your eyes open while you're walking this time."

"But I do have my eyes open, Eliza." Serena said that with such a level of naivete that Eliza almost found herself crashing to the ground.

". . . .no comment." After regaining her composure, Eliza started to walk away from the innocent girl.

"What? Did I say something weird again?! Eliza!?!" Serena shouted, only to get a sigh in response from Eliza.

"Just come on!"

All Sheena and Zelos could do was look at the two girls in bewilderment. Seeing the two, it was hard to think that the two had been friends for years, or even that with Eliza's temperament, that they'd stuck together for as long as they had.

A few minutes later. . . .

Serena followed behind Eliza, her nose had stopped its bleeding some time ago. Eliza was off in her own little world at that moment, so Serena was left to her own self. Behind the two girls, Sheena and Zelos were prattling on about something Serena didn't quite understand. Curiously Serena looked back at the two, but after a few seconds of overhearing them talk she shrugged her shoulders in confusion, and she turned to look back in front of her. . . .

BAM!

Serena jumped back a few feet, "Holy erasers!" she shouted in shock.

Both Zelos and Sheena had been so wrapped up in their conversation they were only brought back out of it when Serena nearly knocked the both of them over.

"Now, what's wrong, my Cute Nymph? Did you hurt yourself again?" Zelos asked her, helping the girl regain her balance.

"N-Not me!" Serena started in a panicking tone. "Eliza!" she shouted pointing to the brunette in front of her.

"Owww . . . stupid pole, out to get me." the girl grumbled, rubbing the middle of her forehead harshly.

"Wow, that's something I would have expected Serena to do. . . ." Sheena said shocked.

"Hah, looks like even Princess has her spells!" Zelos laughed out. Luckily for the man, Eliza was too preoccupied with her forehead injury to notice the use of the nickname.

Serena ran over to the girl in worry, "Eliza, are you ok?"

"Yeah, minus the throbbing I'm a peach. . . ." she muttered, clutching the throbbing spot in the middle of her forehead.

Eliza suddenly looked up at the pole, fury in her amber eyes. "Stupid pole!!" she shouted loudly, earning her some strange looks from the few people who were passing by the small group.

Serena knew what was coming next, "No! Eliza, it won't help to–!" she started in hopes of soothing the girl's fury.

BAM!!

Eliza's foot connected rather violently with said pole . . . of course, that attack didn't have any effect on anyone, or thing but herself. "Owowowowowowow!!" she shouted clutching her now throbbing foot.

Both Zelos and Sheena just looked in shock at Eliza, not knowing what to say at this point. (What** do** you say to a girl who just attempted to exact revenge on an inanimate object?)

"I swear, you stupid pole, one day you will meet your doom!!" the brunette girl practically howled out.

Serena stood there moving every which way, not knowing exactly what to do. "Ah... Um... E-Eliza? Are you going to be all right?"

"No, I think the question should be; is she all together up there?" Zelos asked, pointing up to his own head as a reference.

Eliza wasn't sure if he was joking or if he was being serious. So she stood back in a normal stance, letting a rather calm smile overcome her features, figuring that it was _her_ turn to pull a joke on the redhead after what he'd done to her that same morning. "Now, now, Zelos you needn't worry. After all, I do think I remembered my medicine this morning. . . . Or did I forget it again?"

"Y-You're joking, aren't you?" Sheena said to the girl, startled by the sheer air of calm that had overtaken the girl in a matter of seconds.

"Am I really? Do you take me as the type to joke about this, Sheena?"

Though Sheena and Zelos hadn't a clue to what Eliza was pulling, Serena was all too familiar with this joke, it was something Eliza did to a lot of people. . . . She'd witnessed it more times than she could count.

"Uh, she is just joking. R-Right?" Zelos asked, trying to hide the nervous tone in his voice with the usual tone he used.

Suddenly Eliza erupted with psychotic laughter. It ceased after a few moments and she brought her upright head back down to look at the two freaked-out adults, not able to hold back a real laugh at the startled looks on their faces.

"And you two just met my crazy side. Ok then! Serena shall we continue our outing to the mall?" Eliza chirped with a smile on her face.

"You really are getting better at that Eliza, you almost fooled me!" Serena giggled, "But don't you think it was a little mean to pull that on them?" she finished, pointing at the stock still Chosen and Summoner.

Eliza looked behind her at the two, "Maybe just a bit..."

"Ok, what is wrong with you? Was that seriously just some act you made up?" Sheena said, nervous that the one host that she thought was levelheaded was in fact psychotic.

"I guess I had you fooled, but yeah just an act . . . or it is, most of time." Eliza muttered the final part under her breath.

In truth if she overdid it with sugar or caffeine, that side of her wouldn't be just an act. B-u-t it was probably best to keep that secret between herself, and Serena.

"Act or not, I am really starting to doubt that you are even the slightest bit sensible," This time around, Zelos actually sounded serious, and faintly afraid.

Eliza rolled her eyes at him, "Trust me, in this world that isn't even the tip of the iceberg! You might not like _me_ much, but I will tell you that as far as things go, you're actually lucky to have gotten stuck with Serena and I."

"I doubt that."

"Doubt it all you want, but it is the truth."

"Okay! Before this gets ugly, maybe it'd be best if we continued onward?" Sheena interrupted.

"Y-Yeah, I'd rather this be a quick a trip as possible," the dark brunette next to Eliza agreed, one hand tugging lightly on her knee-length plait.

Eliza started humming as she drifted off in her own little world while the group set off for the mall, Serena still hoping that everything would go all right. It wasn't until the group actually reach the nearby bridge that things started to go truly downhill. . . .

"Whoa! Those things can move!?" Zelos shouted in response to seeing a car rounding a nearby curve. Of course he and Sheena had seen some parked cars outside of Eliza and Serena's apartment, but they thought that they were some sort of ornaments or something.

"Oh right! I'd forgotten to explain what cars–!" Serena started cheerfully as she turned around to face Sheena, only to halt her explanation, "W-Wait, what's Sheena doing?"

Eliza herself bolted around completely, knowing that whatever the Summoner _was_ doing, it wasn't going to end well.

"Oh, she's just summoning," Zelos said glancing at her. Zelos had seen Sheena summon more than once, so it wasn't a big deal to him. As far as he and Sheena knew 'cars' were actually some kind of monster. And when there were many monsters around, Sheena summoned, it was a normal thing in Tethe'alla. So, he didn't seem worried about it, and continued watching the traffic, oblivious to the startled looks of his hosts. "I've never seen so many monsters in one place before, do you have to fight them every time you go outside?"

But both girls' attention was wholly on Sheena as a blue glowing insignia formed on the pavement beneath her feet.

"This is bad! This is **really** bad!" Eliza yelled.

"For the love of beets! We have to do something!" Serena shouted, tugging on her hair nervously.

As Sheena started the incantation to summon, Eliza did the only thing that she could think of to stop her. . . .

"Maiden of the mist that comes of purity, by right as the pact maker I command thee. Come forth, Undi–!!!" Without a warning, Sheena's summoning was halted as someone crashed into her, knocking her to the hard cement.

Serena stared at the ninja and her best friend wide-eyed, completely speechless.

The utter silence from the three women made Zelos turn his attention from the 'monsters' and back to the group. "Now that's a first! I've seen monsters and people try to stop Sheena from summoning, but no one's ever tried to tackle her out of it!" Zelos laughed, finding it funny that Eliza actually had enough guts to attack the ninja.

"Oh my goodness! Are you two all right?" Serena asked, snapping out of her shell shocked state.

"Oww..." Sheena groaned, trying to figure out just what had happened.

Next to her Eliza was bringing herself back up to sit, clutching her head.

"What was that for Eliza!?! Those things are monsters aren't they?! I was just trying to stop them before anyone got hurt!" Sheena yelled.

Eliza sent a death glare back at Sheena, "Look Sheena, before you decide to go all ninja summoner in this world you need to ask questions first!"

"T-Those things are monsters aren't they?" Sheena asked.

"And here I thought Zelos was the one I was going to have to worry about!! Looks like I stand corrected . . . ouch. . . . ." Eliza flinched in pain, her head still throbbing. "No, those things not monsters; they are _machines _people use to get around in this world!!"

"H-How was I. . . ?" Sheena started, Eliza was clutching her head.

"You could have asked Eliza or myself, we would have told you. . . ." Serena answered meekly, holding her hand out to Sheena.

Zelos, on the other hand, was over by Eliza, "Now Princess, did you hurt yourself?"

Eliza stood up to her feet slowly. "I told you Zelos, do not call me that," she replied to him, her voice less enraged than usual. Maybe the fact that he seemed concerned for her well being made her more deferential toward him, if only temporarily.

"I knew that this was going to be a long day. . . ." Serena moaned out, making everyone look at her.

They continued walking, but as the group started to near the mall, more and more people started to look in their direction. Eliza started noticing the looks people were giving them, confused as to why they were the center of attention.

The brunette looked around at the people who were staring at her little group, trying to figure out who was the one behind all of the unwanted attention. . . . If Zelos or Sheena were up to something. . . .

Then she realized it was one particular member of their group attracting the stares as she looked at a few girls who walked by them. As one of the teenage girls dressed like a Punk-Rocker passed by, she glanced at Zelos and gave a short sigh.

"Too bad he's not straight," she said, not bothering to keep her voice politely low, with this statement Eliza's face went red, knowing what she meant by this.

Zelos himself didn't seem to understand their words and looked after them in confusion, "Princess, Serena . . . what did that girl mean when she said 'straight?" he asked.

Serena was wide-eyed and stark red. She wasn't one who wanted to answer a question like that, nor would she be able to main her composure if she tried.

Eliza stiffened and she did her best to answer without actually telling him what that term meant in her world, though she would not doubt being grateful that he did **not** know what it meant. "U-Um, in all honesty it would probably be best if I-I . . . if you didn't know." She had grown so familiar with the man's attire that she hadn't considered the possibility that others might see it as a sign of his sexual preferences. That's what happens when someone spends their adolescent years obsessed with RPG video games and anime. . . .

"Why's that? Is what that means really so bad Eliza?" Sheena asked, herself curious.

Serena shook a bit with embarrassment, "R-Really Sheena, i-it is for the b-best." she answered, setting a hand on Sheena's shoulder.

The ninja looked back at the girl, and upon seeing her nervous face sighed, "If you're saying that too Serena, then I guess there has to be a good reason for it. . . ." Sheena said, deciding to heed the girls' advice and drop the matter.

"Come on now, how bad could it be? I want to know what it means." Zelos said.

Eliza's head snapped back in his direction, "I'm **not** telling you what it means! You'll have to settle for that!" she screamed. That caused more people to stare in their direction, and namely at Zelos. Upon noticing this, Eliza groaned and with her face still red she knew that the only way to keep people from staring was to get rid of the reason. . . . She covered her face with her hand, knowing that by doing this she was seriously sacrificing some of her dignity and self-respect because she knew how Zelos was going to take her request.

"E-Eliza?" Serena squeaked.

Sheena also starred at the still girl curiously.

A few more seconds past by before Eliza's hand slid from her face and she looked over at him, "Come here. . . ." She quickly pulled him off to the side and muttered in an undertone, "Take off the jacket."

Zelos, never one to pass up an opportunity to aggravate her, automatically replied, "If you're really so interested, maybe we should find a more secluded place than this Princess."

Eliza's face went red again, and she felt herself starting to shake from impatience. "_Please_ try and not get on my nerves right now, I'm trying to do something that will save us grief in the long run.

"What am I suppose to think when a girl says something like that to me Princess?"

That was when Eliza looked at him, sheer anger evident in her amber eyes. "Give it to me." When he continued to hesitate, she started seething, "Give it, give it, give it, _give it!_"

Utterly baffled by her behavior (and slightly afraid or her), he untied the laces of the jacket and took it off, leaving him in a normal-looking black shirt. "The gloves too!" She pointed to his gloves and he reluctantly took them off as well.

"Why exactly are you taking my clothes?" he wondered as she stuffed them into her purse.

"They make you look . . . too feminine. Pink here doesn't carry the same meaning it does in your home world. A normal guy just can't go around wearing something like this. Well, not that you're _normal_…" Eliza saw no other way to explain it without making the current situation even more embarrassing.

"It's not pink! It's rose," he stated with some pride.

"Gah!" Eliza almost fell to the ground in shock at hearing that. "T-That's even_ worse_!" she yelled, never having heard a guy defend what shade of pink he was wearing before.

"What's wrong with it?!" he retorted.

"We're going to find you something decent to wear, but there is no way I'm going to walk around with you in this old outfit for another minute! You don't get these back until we return to the apartment!" Their argument continued for quite some time. . . .

After the group successfully reach the mall...

"Oh thank the Lord, we actually made it here without another bridge nearly being blown up!" Eliza shouted, the people who were exiting the mall nearby gave her the strangest looks imaginable.

"Soo . . . what's a mall again?" Sheena asked, surprised at the size of the building.

"A very large store, er, a chain of stores should I say," Serena explained shortly.

"That's one big store," Sheena commented, looking back to the building.

"H-Ha, it's nothing..." Zelos laughed out weakly, not yet willing to give up his Tethe'allan pride.

"Let's just get inside before we have another incident." The brunette roughly yanked the door open.

Inside, both Sheena and Zelos were in shock and awe of how the mall was set up. They pointed to the glass roofing overhead and commented on the gardens between shops, as well as the escalators nearby. The place was also crammed full of people.

"Uh, Eliza, are those two going to be ok?" Serena asked quietly.

"Yeah, they're just a little awestruck. . . ." she answered, setting up a mental plan for the group to get what they needed and get out ASAP. . . . She lost herself in her mind for a few moments only to be snapped back out of it when Serena started to shake her arm violently.

"Eliza! Zelos is gone!!" Serena shouted in panic.

* * *

-The End

_-Through the twists and turns, may our paths cross once more. . . ._


End file.
